Swedish wireless carriers are joining their counterparts around the world and forming a joint venture to support mobile payments. In an announcement, mobile operators Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 said they have formed the JV with the expectation that they will be ready by next summer to offer a mobile payment method to customers.

According to the announcement, the joint venture is being formed to promote a safer, more convenient mobile payment method in order to encourage the adoption of mobile payments.

The amount of the investment by the companies was not divulged, but the announcement did say the JV will be owned equally by the four partners.

The new Swedish venture joins similar efforts by carriers in the UK, France, Denmark and the U.S. Of those JVs, only the French carriers have actually launched a working system. Buyster, the mobile payment method made available through the French carriers, officially launched in September.

Other national mobile payment joint ventures have run into some difficulties in getting off the ground. For instance, a year after forming, the U.S. Isis network has admitted it's still searching for a profitable business model. And the UK network being launched by O2, Everything Everywhere and Vodafone is being challenged to the European Commission as being anti-competitive by smaller UK rival Three.

For more on the challenges facing mobile payment joint ventures around the world, see "Carrier m-payment JVs face challenges."

For more stories on this topic in general, visit the Carriers/Card Schemes research center.