Canada’s three leading wireless carriers are making good on a three-year-old promise to launch a universal mobile payment service, allowing customers to send, request, and receive money using their mobile phones.

The new service, known as Zoompass, will be available starting tomorrow on Rogers, Fido, Bell, Solo, Telus, and PC Mobile networks.

Those who install the Zoompass software will be able to send payments to other wireless users via SMS messaging or email. Payments can be drawn either from a prepaid Zoompass account (for $0.50 per transaction), or from a credit card (for 3.5% of the transaction amount). Once a payment is complete, the sender will receive a digital receipt via SMS.

Zoompass won’t be equipped for retail use, but Canadian wireless executives say that it’s only a matter of time before such features become available.

“Think of it as a mobile wallet, with this as the cash part,” explained Rogers’ vice president of business planning, David Robinson. “Credit cards come next. Then loyalty programs, keys and (personal) identification. This is the beginning of mobile commerce.”

Rogers is already working with RBC and Visa to test technology that would “download a real live credit card on a mobile phone,” Robinson added.