Google’s plan to revive its mobile wallet platform has reached a new milestone.

In an effort to compete with other big names in the payments space, the company has struck a deal with Softcard and its owners, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and AT&T.

The agreement allows the tech giant to have its payments app pre-installed in Android smartphones around the US later this year. Google is also buying mobile technology from Softcard to further develop its own app.

Bogdan Petrovan highlighted the significance of the deal on Android Authority:

“Apple is not paying carriers anything for Apple Pay; it doesn’t have to, because it tightly controls what goes on its devices, as opposed to Google, which has little say in this area. So Google is willing to cut a deal with carriers and give them a fee for each transaction.”

Many say the company is lagging behind Apple Pay’s recent advancements in the industry. But based on Walker Sands’ 2015 Future of Retail Study, there’s still plenty of ground to cover in the transition to digital payments.

Data from the study indicates that 80 percent of consumers (8 in 10) expressed a general level of hesitation when it comes to mobile payments services. The top two concerns cited by the participants include security and privacy.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the new technology, research shows that 40 percent of consumers used a mobile payment app last year, an increase of eight percent from 2013.

Over 45 percent of the respondents admitted to using the Google Wallet app in particular for the transaction.

According to the Wall Street Journal and other sources, the official unveiling of the new payments app will be revealed during the next Google I/O event in San Francisco.