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Multiple mobile payments companies are teaming up to offer expanded direct carrier billing options to Verizon Wireless customers here in the U.S. BilltoMobile, a Verizon partner since March 2010, has signed an agreement with BOKU, a mobile payments company that already provides merchants access to 2 billion consumers worldwide on 230 carriers, including AT&T, Vodafone, Globe and others. Also now on board is Zong, another international mobile payments company known for its integration with Facebook Credits, and more recently, its launch of a carrier billing program for Android developers.

BilltoMobile operates a payment gateway that's tied directly with Verizon's billing platform here in the U.S., as well as AT&T's. The new agreement allows BOKU and Zong to access that gateway, in order to provide services to Verizon customers.

For Verizon end users, this simply means more options for carrier billing.

Square, the mobile payments company launched in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is the name most often bandied about in tech circles these days when it comes to talk of credit-card swiping attachments made for iPhone. But Square was never alone on the mobile payments battlefront, and now it has a new competitor backed by a well-known brand name: Intuit.

Today Intuit is making its two-year-old premium GoPayment service free - a service which comes with a magnetic stripe reader attachment that hooks onto the iPhone, similar to the one Square offers.

Google quietly acquired mobile payments firm Zetawire yesterday, the deal having flown under the radar until analysts at the 451 Group saw a disclosure notice from the company's law firm, Fenwick and West, mentioning the acquisition.

So what's Google's interest in a low-profile, early stage startup like the Toronto-based Zetawire? Apparently, the Internet search giant wanted to get its hands on a particular patent the firm had been recently granted, one that hints at Google's larger ambitions in the mobile space: Google is developing a full-fledged mobile wallet technology for its Android-based phones.

Leading U.S. mobile operators AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have announced a new mobile payments service called Isis, which will allow customers to make payments using their mobile phones. This morning, the company announced its chief executive position has been filled by Michael Abbott, a former GE executive who spent nearly a decade focused on strategy, marketing and product development at his former company.

According to the statement Isis released today, its focus will be on building a mobile payments network that uses "smartphone and near-field communication (NFC) technology to modernize the payments process." The service will be released over the next 18 months in key geographic markets.

It's been a few years since online retail giant Amazon started offering hosted e-commerce payment services in the form of Checkout by Amazon, and today the company has rolled out some upgraded features that should be good news for merchants. Third-party sellers now have the ability to provide customers with a full-blown Amazon.com experience from directly within their own site, including address book and payment method information.

In a press release this morning, MasterCard has announced that desktop and mobile developers will have access to an API from the credit card giant later this year. The company hopes that by opening its technology to developers, new and innovative e-commerce applications that leverage the MasterCard network will be created, potentially competing with the likes of Visa, PayPal and Square.

Back in early February, while aboard a red-eye to New York, Dave McClure wrote a long, humorous, rambling, profanity-laden rant of a blog post that focused on startup business models. While it makes for an entertaining read, McClure's post is also very insightful and makes a solid case for why startups should shift from advertising models and instead build their new businesses on subscriptions and micropayments. Earlier this month I had the chance to visit the headquarters of ZooLoo, a startup that witnessed this very shift first-hand with their own business model.

According to a new Forrester survey, almost 80% of Internet users in the US and Canada would not pay for access to newspaper and magazine websites. Those users who would consider paying for content are mostly interested in subscriptions. Only a very small number of consumers is interested in making micropayments (3%). The study also asked which distribution channel consumers would prefer if their favorite print publications ceased to exist. 37% preferred the web, 14% mobile phones and 11% would prefer to read the content on their laptops or netbooks. 10% would prefer PDFs delivered by email and 3% would read the content on their e-readers.

Online retailer Amazon.com has just announced a new checkout system called "PayPhrase" which speeds up the process of making online purchases by allowing shoppers to enter a unique phrase and 4-digit PIN number to complete their transaction. Both the phrase and PIN are created in advance and are linked to a shipping address and preferred method of payment. After the initial set up, PayPhrase users are no longer required to sign in or fill out credit card information when shopping online.

There are 4 billion mobile phones in the world, but only 2 billion bank accounts. That's not just a bit of trivia, but the very raison d'etre for the new mobile payment service called BOKU, launching out of stealth mode today. The service essentially turns your phone into a credit card, allowing you to pay for things "by mobile" with the charges showing up on your cell phone bill at the end of the month.