Cellular South launched a multi-city wireless wallet trial this week in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss.

Now the largest privately held wireless provider in the U.S., Cellular South has teamed with USA Technologies to launch the service. It will be the first multi-city consumer trial of USA Technologies’ WirelessWallet service. The service lets consumers make purchases and payments using their cell phones.

More than 75 Cellular South customer participants will test the technology at nearly 50 retail locations. Greg Latour, senior vice president of technology development for Cellular South, said Memphis and Jackson are home to a substantial Cellular South customer base.

The WirelessWallet technology will use a handset from Kyocera Wireless. The wireless device acts as a digital credit card that allows Cellular South customers to make payments and purchases by simply tapping it against a Near Field Communication-enabled wireless reader. The company plans to complete the trial by August of this year, with an anticipated widespread consumer rollout of WirelessWallet in early 2008.

In addition to Kyocera Wireless, Cellular South also partnered with ViVOtech to provide the payment software that resides on the handset as well as the credit card issuance software and hardware. Other partners include Mpact for trial development and management services, reader deployment, and NFC content and delivery services. USA Technologies will develop a contactless wireless reader designed for vending machines and other self-service point-of-sales applications.

Hu Meena, president of Cellular South, said that conducting a comprehensive, multi-city test gives the company the experience and broad-based knowledge to perfect the product and deliver the best, most reliable mobile payment service to its customers.

Last month, Cellular South introduced its new mobile payment service called Obopay, which allows customers to instantly receive, send and spend money directly from their wireless device. Using Obopay, users can check account balances, get money owed from other mobile users, and view transaction histories, as well as invite friends to use the service.