Contactless and NFC specialist On Track Innovations (OTI) reports that it has received an order valued at US$2m for NFC and contactless payment readers to be deployed in the US... More
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Clear2Pay and TestPlant offer mobile payments app testing solution
NFC test equipment supplier Clear2Pay and graphical user interface testing specialist TestPlant have introduced a fully automated mobile payment app testing solution... More
Italian postal service to introduce NFC payments
Poste Italiane has announced plans for a comprehensive NFC payments service, which will begin rolling out in the city of Milan in December 2012... More
Winery automates grape picking wages with NFC
A new system that uses NFC phones and RFID tags to track how many grapes each worker has harvested means Bodega Norton winery in Argentina now saves a day every week collating how much each worker has picked and what they should be paid. More
Confidex adds rugged NFC tags
Contactless ticketing and RFID specialist Confidex has unveiled a new generation of its Steelwave Micro rugged tags that comes with an NFC-compatible version designed for use in asset management applications... More
NTT Docomo to take Japanese mobile wallet global
The Japanese carrier, founder of Japan’s Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service, has signed a deal with MasterCard that will see its 17m iD mobile credit card holders being able to use a new generation of phones to make payments at MasterCard Paypass merchants in 41 countries as well as at 560,000 Osaifu-Keitai points of sale in Japan. More
Turkcell upgrades NFC mobile wallet service
The Turkish mobile network operator has introduced a major upgrade to its NFC-based Cep-T Cüzdan mobile wallet, adding the ability to make online purchases and support for any mobile phone. Fourteen banks have signed up for the new service and a strategic partnership with MasterCard will see the platform being made available in other countries. More
GlobalPlatform adds NFC SIM certification program
For mobile network operators, the introduction reflects industry agreement on a very complex subject matter, says the secure element standards organisation. “For service providers and issuers it provides reassurances that an application will perform as intended regardless of the mobile device being used.” More
PrivatBank picks Gemalto for NFC payments in the Ukraine
The first commercial mobile payments deployment in the Ukraine will begin with contactless stickers and then be expanded to include NFC phones, says the country’s largest commercial bank. More
SimplyTapp proposes secure elements in the cloud
A US-based start-up has developed an alternative approach to storing the sensitive data required to make a transaction with an NFC phone. Rather than placing it in a secure element on the phone, SimplyTapp stores the data in the cloud on a “remote secure element” and passes encrypted transaction data through the phone to a point-of-sale terminal when the user makes a purchase. More
Visa releases Olympics NFC and contactless usage statistics
“The response has been extremely positive and our priority now is on turning that enthusiasm into commercial mobile payment deployments across Europe,” says Visa’s Mary Carol Harris, adding that “we recognise that the journey is a marathon, not a sprint.” More
MasterCard adds Mobile PayPass User Interface SDK
“MasterCard is providing a programmer-friendly set of functions that make it easy for application developers to rapidly deliver payment apps to consumers – without having to become smart card programming experts,” says the payments network. More
Assa Abloy launches Seos mobile keys
The access control giant — owner of HID Global, Yale, Vingcard Elsafe and more — has unveiled a new platform that allows NFC phones to be used to replace mechanical keys and access cards in homes, hotels, offices, hospitals, universities and commercial buildings. More
EMVCo and NFC Forum to simplify NFC device testing
Chip and pin standards body EMVCo and the NFC Forum have agreed to work together to optimise the development and testing process for NFC devices... More
Carriers get green light to launch NFC in the UK
The European Commission has given its unconditional approval for the UK’s three largest mobile network operators to form a joint venture company to introduce NFC mobile payments and promotional services in the UK. More
Orange and Barclaycard add Galaxy S III to Quick Tap NFC payments service
The UK carrier and card issuer’s service is now available on an Android smartphone for the first time and customers who activate Quick Tap on an S III by 5 October will receive a £50 credit they can use to make NFC purchases with their phone. More
Telefonica begins commercial NFC service in Czech Republic
Two thousand customers who purchase a Samsung Galaxy S III are to be the first Czech consumers to take part in a commercial NFC payments service, offered by carrier Telefonica in conjunction with Komerční Banka, Visa Europe and Samsung. More
ACS to launch contactless POS terminal
Hong Kong-based NFC and smart card reader specialist Advanced Card Systems (ACS) is moving into the contactless point-of-sale terminal market... More
Elisa issues NFC stickers to students
Finnish mobile network operator Elisa has partnered with MasterCard and the student-owned Lyyra discount and benefit card to issue prepaid NFC stickers to more than 100,000 students from the third quarter of 2012... More
Isis adds fuel retailers to merchant line-up
Pay-at-pump technology providers Gilbarco Veeder-Root and GE-owned Wayne have agreed to build Isis’s SmartTap technology into their fuel dispensers, ahead of the NFC joint venture’s first pilots in Austin and Salt Lake City. More