NTT Docomo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile have set up the Japan Mobile NFC Consortium with the aim of working together to coordinate the switch from Japan’s existing Osaifu-Keitai non-NFC standard mobile payments system to NFC. More
The Korean mobile network operator has committed to an aggressive plan to quickly move large numbers of its customers towards NFC services by deciding that, from now on, it will only offer smartphones equipped with NFC functionality. More
Analysis by Comscore for its 2010 Mobile Year in Review has found that just under 10% of Japanese mobile subscribers made a purchase with their mobile wallet during December 2010... More
Toshiba has announced it has now completed testing of an NFC UIM, a user identity module that can be used in both CDMA2000 NFC phones and as a SIM card for GSM NFC phones, and is now ready to begin mass production... More
The three mobile network operators, who signed an NFC cooperation agreement in July 2010, are to begin testing a number of cross-border NFC services this month with the aim of launching commercial services by the end of 2011. More
Mobile network operator NTT Docomo, the driving force behind Japan’s Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service, has confirmed that it will make the move to NFC standard technology from “around the end of 2012”, in partnership with Korea’s KT. More
Softbank Mobile has partnered with credit card issuers Credit Saison and Orient Corporation to test NFC on HTC Android smartphones equipped with a SIM+antenna solution and mobile wallet software. More
NTT Docomo has begun the world’s first mass market deployment of mobile phones with NFC tag reading capabilities. Sixteen of the operator’s new range of mobile phones and a number of existing handsets will be able to perform both Osaifu-Keitai mobile contactless payments functions and NFC tag reading from next week. More
NTT Docomo is set to make the switch to NFC standard technology in 2013, according to a report in Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun... More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: First Osaifu-Keitai smartphone • Antenna designer broadcasts Samsung success • St Petersburg metro test • NFC is key to BMW’s Connected Drive • NFC Forum’s new member • Gauthier moves to PayPal • Toro and Collis partner up • and more… More
A new report from financial services analysts Celent forecasts that the mobile contactless payments market in South Korea is set to grow at an average compound annual growth rate of some 50%... More
The payments processing giant has signed a deal with Korea’s SK C&C, responsible for the technology behind SK Telecom’s mobile contactless payments service, and will begin offering a turnkey NFC payments service to US banks from the first quarter of 2011. More
The three mobile network operators are to move away from the non-NFC mobile contactless technologies they currently support in favour of an NFC standard solution. More
Gemalto has provided further details of the role it is playing in Japanese mobile network operator KDDI‘s extensive NFC field test, which went live last month... More
The mobile network operator has partnered with card issuers, airlines, a cinema chain, a car manufacturer and others to run a series of tests of NFC standard technology and aims to introduce NFC services “in the near future”. More
Carl Atsushi Hirano, the driving force behind the introduction five years ago of Japan’s Osaïfu Keitai mobile wallet service, has set out his thinking on what was required to make the service a success and what it will take to successfully introduce NFC services in other countries. More
Orico says it has been working with Gemalto and with Japanese mobile operator KDDI on a small-scale technical test of a MasterCard PayPass-compatible NFC service. More
There wasn’t much to see in the way of mainstream NFC developments at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show — but some interesting potentially competitive technologies and enabling solutions made the massive Las Vegas event worth casting an eye over. More