Google's initial partners in its digital wallet gambit, such as trusted service partner First Data, are being given an interesting opportunity. The KKR-owned company will be performing "a process called over-the-air provisioning to bond a consumer's payment account to a smartphone running the Google Wallet software," notes Mobile Banker.

This is a new area for First Data, but it has a lot of related experienced that may prove helpful as it stitches together the initial service for Google. It has experience in the contactless payment sticker area, having introduced the Go-Tag sticker in 2009, and it has introduced memory cards supplied by Tyfone that contain electronic wallet software. It will have to impress Google as an entrepreneurial company that can craft a service to its liking.

But as Google expands its digital wallet, other companies will be invited in. First Data would obviously like to maintain some sort of exclusivity and find ways to generate a revenue stream from future partners. Perhaps it will offer the foundation network that others will port to--something along those lines any.

One expert told the new service: "The big challenge comes when you try to scale it, getting multiple financial services players involved. Then it becomes far more complicated. No one has done that yet, and the big gray areas are business questions, not technology questions." In any case, it certainly seems like a great opportunity, even if it's only temporary. 

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