US operator Sprint plans to steal a lead on its rivals by launching NFC payments later this year, reports Bloomberg. The timeframe is significant as Sprint is the only one of the current big four US operators not involved in the Isis NFC-based payments scheme. Isis – an alliance between Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile USA – does not plan to launch services until 2012. According to Kevin McGinnis, Sprint’s vice president of product platforms, Sprint is currently talking with payment networks and handset makers to bring the contactless technology to market. “We intend to make this an open solution where consumers can use their phone in a variety of physical locations,” said McGinnis. Sprint’s business model is thought to be different to the one planned by Isis. Rather than take a percentage of each transaction, as Isis plans, Sprint could share in revenue from sales of coupons sent to its customers’ handsets or targeted advertising, McGinnis said. Users’ purchases are then billed via their regular credit-card statements.

Meanwhile, Isis announced this week that it will launch a pilot service in Salt Lake City in “early- to mid-2012.” Participants will be able to use “Isis-enabled mobile phones to make point-of-sale purchases at retailers across the Salt Lake City area and on public transportation,” the alliance said in a statement Monday. As part of the pilot, Isis has signed an agreement with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to make its entire transit system Isis-enabled. Most of the world’s top handset vendors and operators have committed to launching NFC-enabled devices this year.