News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: Inside Contactless ships 250m cards, changes name • Visa matches phone and card locations • UK debit cards overtake cash • PayPal rewards best customers • Retailers test mobile POS • Mobile barcode usage up 30% • Which mobile OS where? • and more… More
Visa Europe
Turkey’s Akbank and Visa Europe to test microSD NFC device
News of Akbank and Visa’s trial follows the announcement in May that MasterCard, Garanti Bank and mobile network operator Avea are to begin a commercial NFC service in Turkey this summer. More
Telefónica Movistar, La Caixa and Visa begin pre-commercial NFC pilot in Spanish resort of Sitges
1,500 customers of Telefónica and La Caixa have been issued with Samsung S5230 NFC phones which they can use to make debit and credit card payments in taxis, sports centres, at market stalls and in retail stores. More
Telefónica O2 launches its first commercial NFC service — and sets out strategy for future deployments
The mobile network operator is starting small with a limited rollout in the Czech city of Pilsen but a business strategy is now in place and commercial launches in the UK and Spain could be next. More
Polkomtel and BZ WBK bank to run NFC trial in three Polish cities
Mobile network operator Polkomtel has partnered with BZ WBK bank to run an NFC payments trial in the cities of Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan... More
NFC bus ticketing trial to take place in Madrid
An NFC bus ticketing pilot is to be run in Madrid, Spain by Bankinter and Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid (EMT), beginning in mid-2010... More
Telefonica announces NFC trial in Sitges, Spain
Telefonica has announced this morning that it is to run an NFC trial in the Spanish resort of Sitges, in conjunction with Visa and La Caixa bank (see a photo from the press conference here)... More
Visa Europe to invest €200m in development of contactless payments by card and mobile
“M-commerce is a strategic priority,” says Visa Europe’s head of UK and Ireland, “we are working and talking with all the mobile operators and handset manufacturers to develop standards for payment on mobile phones.” More
Irish banks to launch NFC services in 2011?
Executives from Visa Europe are meeting with Irish banks in Dublin this week with a view to launching commercial NFC services in Ireland, according to a report in the Irish Examiner:... More
Luottokunta begins Visa’s first NFC trial in Finland
A small scale near field communication trial has begun in Finland... More
NFC payments trial launched in Italy
Credit Valtellina already issues contactless Visa PayWave cards in Italy’s Sondrio province under the Tellcard brand name... More
NFC proves popular in Swiss trial
More than 90% of the participants in a small scale Swiss trial say they will use NFC when it becomes commercially available. More
The NFCW Jobs Board: 3 April 2009 vacancies
There are three new opportunities on the NFCW Jobs Board this week, including a vacancy for a product manager for Visa Europe’s NFC and contactless initiatives… 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
2009 will be the year of contactless payments, says Visa Europe boss
As he reported the payments company’s latest trading results in Brussels last week, Visa Europe’s chief executive confirmed innovation is key to the company’s plans for the coming year. 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