Bloomberg is reporting that Google and Sprint will be launching a contact-less payment system this Thursday based on near-field communication, or NFC, technology.
Google’s Nexus S 4G handset that’s available from Sprint already has NFC technology built into it, so most of the heavy lifting needs to be done on the retail side with NFC-equipped point-of-sale terminals.
Bloomberg contends that Google may roll out the new payment service in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. at first, according to a few of its sources.
Google’s certainly rolling something out in New York on Thursday, as I’ve been invited by Google to attend a “partner event to experience our latest innovations,” at noon.
When I pressed Google’s PR rep to tell me—off the record—what the event was about to see if it’d be worth my while to travel all the way from Boston to attend, I was told—besides, “No.”—that, “It’s a fairly prominent announcement, for what it’s worth, although I’m sure you hear that daily.”
And that—my friends—is a refreshing response from someone in PR.
More on TIME.com:
Contactless Cell Phone Payment System Goes Live in U.K.