Betting that millions of North American consumers will use their cell phones to pay bills, wire money or buy a half-gallon of milk, four former GTECH Corp. executives and an international business consultant have formed a company to market a mobile-phone payment platform in the United States, Central America and the Caribbean.

North Kingstown-based Ocean State Solutions LLC is preparing to launch mPay, a system that enables cell phone subscribers to use their phones to pay for goods and services as easily as they use credit and debit cards, said Brent Pennington, the company’s commercial director and a former director of retail development at the lottery giant GTECH Corp...

...Ocean State Solutions plans to launch mPay USA in Rhode Island this spring, initially targeting the more than 8,000 college students in the state, Pennington said. The company has had discussions with officials at Brown University, Johnson & Wales University and Bryant University, he said...

...The company is also targeting consumers in developing economies in Central America and the Caribbean, where large numbers of people don’t have bank accounts and conduct most of their daily business with cash, but who nevertheless use cell phones.