The BebaPay service is now live on buses in Nairobi and a free app enables any Android NFC phone to be used as a card reader. Shops, traders and small businesses will be able to use Google’s BebaPay in the future “to accept payments from customers, without needing expensive tills and cash registers.” More
“The telcos keep on doing the same thing, they get arrogant and then they get disintermediated,” MasterCard’s Jorn Lambert has told The Australian Financial Review. More
“NFC was revolutionary 10 years ago but I think it just might have passed its sell-by date”, the retail giant’s Lyndon Lee told attendees at a mobile payments conference in London this week. “We are developing a digital wallet, focusing on marketing and loyalty aspects, but payment may not enter the wallet.” More
“We are bringing the traditional, static in-store experience to life with Codemasters,” tag platform provider Tapit’s Niklas Bakos has told NFC World. “We are creating a digital experience to allow customers to interact with the product on a different level.” More
The new platform allows consumers to charge the cost of small purchases to their mobile phone bill by tapping tags affixed to promotional merchandise, advertising displays, posters and products as well as tags built into key fobs, pens and more. More
The 4G LTE G’zOne CA-201L is waterproof, shockproof and dustproof, says Casio, and can be used for mobile payments applications as well as NFC read/write functions. More
Ten startups with great NFC and contactless ideas will be able to access a three month program of assistance and guidance, €15,000 in seed funding, free office space, a sponsor package and the chance to pitch their final product to investors. More
Finnish tag supplier NFC Netstore is to provide its Contact Point durable NFC tags to Deutsche Bahn for the rail operator’s Touch&Travel national NFC ticketing scheme. Regional transportation operator RMV has already installed 25,000 of the new tags across the Frankfurt region. More
Venues, or groups of friends, can use the system to choose what music should be played — based on the combined preferences of everyone present at the time. More
The Tap4Offers platform has been installed in 360 of the UK rail operator’s carriages and platform provider KBH plans to extend the service to 6,000 carriages operated by eleven rail service providers later this year. More
Seqr does not require merchants to install new hardware and promises to cut transaction fees in half by bypassing the traditional payments networks. McDonald’s, Axfood and Kjell & Company have already adopted the system in Sweden. More
“We have found that the NFC tags are more popular than the QR codes because they are very simple to use,” upmarket fashion retailer Vic has told NFC World. “It is definitely something we hope to keep in our store going forward into the future; it is our way of connecting our online and offline worlds.” More
Drivers can use the new digital key platform to unlock and start electric rental cars, find and book vehicles and access charging stations. More
“The mobile ticketing innovation is the world’s first NFC mobile wallet with P2P redemption of movie tickets,” says technology provider C-SAM. “This new capability reduces the time customers spend purchasing and redeeming tickets, creating a compelling and seamless customer experience for movie ticketing.” More
“We are still in the early days of NFC in Sweden and we are far from mass market when it comes to smartphone penetration,” technology provider Tapit’s Niklas Bakos told NFC World. “Yet, we are already seeing as much NFC tags as QR codes being used in our recent campaigns. Just imagine when the penetration of smartphones increases in Sweden; the potential for NFC is huge.” More
The new technology combines Android tablet PCs with NFC tags attached to patients’ wristbands, medications and nurses’ ID badges and is designed to make the administration of medicines easier, safer, faster and more cost-effective, Dr Adam Landman has told NFC World. More
The new Mobile Ticket service is available on 96% of the city’s public transportation network and is set to be expanded to up to nine more cities across Russia this year. More
RBC Royal Bank and Scotiabank both plan to make the new mobile payments service available to their customers later this year — and RBC has announced it will now make all Interac Flash contactless payments available free of charge to its account holders. More
“The HKMA will work with the industry to promote a fully interoperable and versatile platform to enable Hong Kong to enter into a new era of diversified retail payments,” says Peter Pang, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. More
“NFC has reached the point of no return,” says practice director John Devlin. “It all hinged on handsets; and next year we will see half-a-billion devices in the hands of consumers as it becomes more widely integrated.” More