We'd previously noticed that Cingular was collaborating with Citigroup on some sort of mobile payment system in New York City, though details were pretty slim for the picking at the time; now the carrier has come out with full disclosure on exactly what it is they have up their sleeves. Like its Atlanta trial last year, the New York program involves Nokia handsets fitted with NFC (near-field communication) guts -- though for the sake of the trial participants, we hope Cingular is offering something a little more up-to-date than the lowly 3220 this time around. Unlike Atlanta, however, Cingular has switched up their financial partner from Chase / Visa to Citi / Mastercard, giving users the ability to use their phone for payment anywhere Mastercard's PayPass system is accepted. Parties involved expect the trial to last a total of three to six months, at which point we should all have a better perspective on how folks feel about shedding cash by tapping their cellphones against various surfaces. Of course, Japan seems to like it just fine -- so why not us?

Cingular would like its customers to manage what little money they don't give their carrier every month with their phones. That's the latest coming out of Cingular's Atlanta HQ, announcing that it's in talks with several unnamed banks to allow customers to "view account balances, transfer funds and pay bills" on its handsets. The system will make use of a downloadable app under development by a third party; whether this all has anything to do with a Citibank-run trial in New York City to make payments using Cingular phones, we're not sure -- but either way, we figure carriers are looking for novel ways into your wallet here.

[Thanks, Arun J.]

Read - Reuters
Read - Citibank trial