The bank and the telecoms operator are to run a six month pilot in Dubai, ahead of a commercial NFC launch later this year. More
Mastercard
EMVCo takes first step towards NFC payments standards
The EMV payment standards body owned by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and JCB is inviting mobile operators, chip and handset manufacturers and application providers to a two day meeting designed to help shape EMVCo’s NFC standards strategy. More
DnB NOR and Telenor begin NFC field trial in Oslo
The Norwegian bank and the telecoms operator, which formed a joint venture last year to create an NFC trusted service manager for the Nordic markets, have begun a small scale NFC test that will be extended into Oslo city centre later this year. More
MasterCard, Citi and Bell report on Canadian NFC payments trial
Participants recorded an average transaction amount of $20 during the small scale four month trial. More
NFC stickers continue to gain acceptance
OPINION: Despite a raft of recent announcements by those involved in the development of NFC handsets, it’s clear that contactless stickers still have an important role to play in the widespread adoption of NFC. More
Mastercard and Blaze Mobile launch PayPass mobile stickers
The new Blaze Mobile Mastercard PayPass sticker can be attached to any phone and is seen as a bridge to offering full NFC capabilities. More
Cubic to offer NFC upgrade capability to major transit systems
Transit ticketing supplier Cubic has partnered with Vivotech to offer its customers, who include the transit operators for London, Washington and New York/New Jersey, the ability to upgrade their ticketing systems to accept payment via contactless cards and NFC phones. More
Orange and Barclaycard partner to launch NFC in the UK
All customers are expected to be able to use their phones to pay for everyday items within three years in “the biggest revolution in payments since plastic cards were introduced over 40 years ago.” More
Singapore to get national trusted third party for NFC
Singapore’s banks, telecoms networks and transit operators have given the go ahead for the creation of a national trusted third party designed to ensure full interoperability between the NFC services of all mobile operators and all service providers. More
Sony/NXP joint venture announces ‘universal NFC chip’
Moversa’s new U-SAM chip enables multiple contactless technologies to be supported on one mobile phone, raising the possibility that consumers could soon be using their NFC handsets for everything from Mifare metro tickets and Japanese Osaifu-Keitai electronic wallet functions to Visa and MasterCard contactless transactions. More
Japanese financial services giant tests Mobile MasterCard in Tokyo
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
Carrefour announces major move toward contactless — and NFC
The world’s second largest retailer, part of the French Ergosum consortium aiming to launch a large scale NFC project by the end of this year, will begin converting its own brand credit/loyalty cards to contactless next month… More
US drivers to pay for fuel using NFC
Sheetz convenience stores and fleet card operator Wright Express Corporation are running a multi-city trial that lets fleet card holders make fuel purchases at Sheetz locations with their mobile phones. More
NFC Forum gets new board member, adds more associates
Membership of the NFC Forum is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Handset manufacturers, mobile service providers, payment services providers, chip makers, solution developers, municipalities and academic institutions have all recently joined up. More
ING and MasterCard launch mobile PayPass trial in Romania
Five hundred ING customers in Bucharest are to be the first in the world to have a prepaid Maestro PayPass account loaded onto their NFC phone. More
Forum offers cash awards for NFC competition winners
The NFC Forum has put out a call for entries for this year’s Global Competition, with cash prizes on offer for the winners. It has also produced a new white paper, elected a new chairman and vice chairman and held a press and members briefing at Cartes — where it announced that a certification mark is due out next year as part of a new compliance programme… More
Smart starts small-scale Pay-Buy-Mobile trial in the Philippines
The Philippines’ largest mobile operator has started a small scale NFC trial using equipment that meets the latest GSMA technical specifications. More
GSMA calls for mass market NFC handsets by mid-2009
The mobile industry association has finalised its device requirements for NFC handsets and called on manufacturers to put phones incorporating the Single Wire Protocol interface into consumers’ hands by the middle of next year. More
Cartes 2008: NFC pops up all over the show
Anyone who expected to visit Cartes 2008 and find just the odd NFC application hidden somewhere round the back of a small stand lost in the outer reaches of the exhibition hall was in for quite a surprise — Near Field Communications World spotted forty companies talking NFC at this year’s event… More
MasterCard makes it easier for member banks to launch NFC services
The new Mobile MasterCard PayPass solution makes it much easier for MasterCard member banks to offer NFC-based payment services to their cardholders More