The Mayor’s Fund for London has launched Penny for London, a service that automatically collects small charitable donations when commuters use their contactless cards to pay for journeys on the Transport for London (TfL) network... More
United Kingdom
Football fans get BLE promos
UK Football League sponsor Sky Bet has installed Bluetooth beacons at Elland Road, Leeds and the New York Stadium, Rotherham to send offers to football fans as part of a pilot project that could be rolled out to other locations across the country... More
Bookatable tests iBeacon at 119 restaurants
Europe’s largest online restaurant booking website is testing Apple’s iBeacon location technology to send offers and menus to potential diners toting iPhones as they pass by a participating location... More
Welsh museum tests iBeacons
The National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon, Wales, is using Bluetooth beacons to let visitors discover more about the collections on show on their mobile devices... More
Apple builds SIM into iPad Air 2
Buyers of the iPad Air 2 will be the first to use a new Apple SIM that comes preinstalled in the Wi-Fi+Cellular version of the tablet and looks set to be the first implementation of a “SIM Within” patent published in November 2011. More
Tesco tests PowaTag mobile payments
UK supermarket giant Tesco is conducting a one week test of Powa’s PowaTag mobile payments technology at its Dean Street store in London. To promote the service, a free lunchtime Meal Deal was offered on 13 and 14 October to the first five hundred shoppers to download the PowaTag app and use it to pay with their mobile phone. More
Boku buys carrier billing rival Mopay
Boku, the carrier billing specialist which is working with UK networks to let customers charge the cost of physical goods to their mobile phone bill, has acquired Germany-based rival Mopay... More
Major UK merchants sign up for Zapp mobile payments
Zapp, the mobile payments startup formed by UK payments infrastructure operator VocaLink, has announced that major retail chains including Sainsbury’s, Asda, House of Fraser, Thomas Cook, Shop Direct, Spar and Clarks are to use its service to let customers make payments with their mobile phones... More
Mobile network operators partner with Boku to bring carrier billing to the physical world
Carrier billing provider Boku has partnered with UK mobile network operators O2, EE and Vodafone to make it possible for customers to charge public transport tickets, takeaway food, cups of coffee and other “click and collect” physical world purchases to their mobile phone bill... More
Uber runs NFC marketing campaign in London pubs and clubs
Taxi hailing service Uber is running an NFC marketing campaign in more than 100 London pubs, bars and clubs to promote downloads of its app to drinkers looking to book a taxi ride home. More
John Lewis invests in BLE
Upmarket UK department store chain John Lewis has invested £100,000 in Localz, a startup that uses Bluetooth beacons to improve the in-store shopping experience and has won the retailer’s first JLAB incubator program... More
TfL reports rapid adoption of contactless payments on London transport
More than one million journeys have been paid for using a contactless payment card since Transport for London (TfL) began accepting the cards on the underground and commuter rail services on 16 September... More
Barclaycard to add wearable ticketing to bPay contactless wristband
Barclaycard is to extend the functionality of its bPay contactless wristband to include access control as well as payments, the card issuer has revealed, beginning with the introduction of branded bPay bands for fans of Southampton Football Club that deliver a range of added value benefits to wearers... More
Tesco pilots QR payments
UK-based supermarket giant Tesco is trialling a mobile payments service based on QR codes, Marketing Week reports... More
Weve drops wallet plans?
UK carrier owned mobile commerce venture Weve has cancelled its planned mobile wallet service in the wake of the Apple Pay launch, The Telegraph reports... More
Barclays to provide corporate customers with finger vein biometric devices
Barclays is to provide its UK corporate banking customers with finger vein biometric authentication devices that will let them “easily access their online bank accounts and authorise payments within seconds, without the need for PIN, passwords or authentication codes.”... More
JD Sports adds BLE beacons
UK sports fashion chain JD has installed Bluetooth beacons at its new concept store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre, letting customers who have downloaded the JD app “access exclusive store content and shop from the app before paying in-store.” The store also features eight multi-channel kiosks and a social media wall, and staff have been equipped with iPads “to assist with customers’ enquiries.”... More
Vodafone to launch NFC payments in the UK this month
Mobile network operator Vodafone is preparing to make NFC payments available to its customers in the UK in time for the launch of contactless bank card payments on London’s public transport network on 16 September, the carrier has told NFC World+... More
Barclays calls time on Quick Tap NFC payments
UK bank Barclays is to close its pioneering NFC payments service on 30 October... More
IPC Media promotes magazine sales via convenience store beacons
Publisher IPC Media is using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons installed in 740 One Stop convenience stores across the UK to offer discounted copies of its Chat, Pick Me Up, Woman and TV & Satellite Week magazines... More