While Isis (finally) goes live, its Canadian cousin EnStream, the mobile payment joint venture between carriers Bell, Rogers and TELUS, has quietly sold off its mobile wallet and will be refocusing its efforts. The JV sold its Zoompass mobile wallet to Paymobile Inc., a provider of financial services technology including white label mobile wallet solutions.

When it was launched in 2009, Zoompass was somewhat ahead of its time. It was intended to be a stored-value payment service that would come with a companion contactless payment card and usher in everything from contactless mobile payments to person-to-person money transfers all using NFC technologies. The venture never really took off, and at least one of the partners, Rogers, is set to launch its own SIM-based mobile payment product sometime in the near future.

"As the mobile commerce ecosystem has evolved, EnStream’s focus has shifted to enabling established credential issuers and carriers to leverage the potential of NFC in mobile handsets,: said Almis Ledas, COO of EnStream. "The operation of a payment service is no longer required for us to fulfill our mandate."

Ledas said EnStream is pleased that Paymobile is acquiring the mobile wallet. Apparently, Paymobile sees some residual value in the mobile payments platform.

"Since its inception, Zoompass has proven itself a reliable and robust mobile-commerce platform,” said Paymobile CEO Gino Porco. "As a leading payments program manager, Paymobile offers the tools to help Zoompass realize its full potential, and we are pleased to add it to the payment services we offer our customers. The scalability of Zoompass will allow us to expand our mobile wallet platform into numerous new countries."

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