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Activations of the Isis Mobile Wallet were up substantially in the past month, meaning more users are registering their email addresses and setting up wallet PINs after either downloading the wallet app or using a preloaded app, though Isis remains coy about how often users are actually tapping to pay six months after the wallet’s national launch.

NFC Times Premium Content (Free): The Isis joint venture and member mobile operators officially launched their Isis Mobile Wallet today, with the new Android wallet app now available for subscribers of all three Isis telcos and NFC SIMs in thousands of carrier shops.

NFC Times Exclusive: As it prepares to launch its national rollout, the Isis joint venture seeks to simplify the user interface for consumers to conduct payments and redeem offers and rewards with the second version of its mobile wallet.

It could take four to six years for widespread deployment of NFC at the retail point of sale, but the technology needs to become more than just a “form-factor change” from cards, said Dan Schulman, group president, Enterprise Growth, at American Express.

American Express and Isis have announced that AmEx plans to participate in the two large NFC pilots Isis plans to launch this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

Substantial rollouts of NFC at the point of sale are still three to five years off, said David Messenger, executive vice president for online and mobile in American Express’ Enterprise Growth unit, though he predicted NFC would eventually become a “big force” in payments and other mobile commerce.

U.S.-based American Express, long silent on its plans for NFC, has been making its interest in the technology known of late.

The four major U.S. payment networks will work with mobile carrier joint venture Isis as it rolls out NFC-based mobile commerce in the United States, it was announced today.

Though one of the largest card issuers in the United States, Capital One has for the most part been quiet when it comes to contactless payment and NFC.