Consumers using Cash by Optus — the prepaid NFC SIM-based payments service launched by Australian mobile network operator Optus in November 2014 — can now make payments using a contactless wristband or a sticker attached to their mobile phone. More
Standards body GlobalPlatform has extended the scope of UICC Configuration, its implementation guide for deploying GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.3 within the mobile services sector and managing the secure, over-the-air delivery of new services... More
Some 200 commuters across the Netherlands have begun piloting a service that lets them tap in and out of public transport using their smartphone. The pilot has been put in place by mobile network operators Vodafone and KPN in partnership with OV public transport card provider Translink and all the transport agencies in the country. More
MTS and SaskTel have become the latest Canadian mobile network operators to launch NFC mobile payment services using EnStream, the joint venture between Bell Mobility, Telus and Rogers Communications put in place to act as a single connection point between the country’s card issuers and carriers... More
Orange Spain is to launch a new version of its Orange Cash service allowing users to pay with their smartphone at Visa contactless point-of-sale terminals and make online payments using one-time generated virtual cards... More
Vodafone customers in the Netherlands can now make NFC payments with a mobile version of a credit card... More
An NFC transport ticketing trial in the Netherlands will allow passengers to see on their phones if they have correctly checked themselves on or off the service as they travel, avoiding the risk of paying too much for their journeys... More
A total of 4.7bn SIMs were shipped in 2014 by members of the SIMalliance, an organisation that represents suppliers responsible for 86% of the global SIM market, including 132m NFC SIMs, up 69% on 2013 and taking the total number of NFC SIMs shipped by alliance members over the past four years to 256m. More
Close to one million New Zealanders now have the ability to make NFC payments with the nationwide launch of Semble, a SIM-based mobile wallet introduced by two New Zealand banks, three carriers and payments network Paymark... More
Vodafone customers in five major European markets will be able to use their Visa cards to make NFC mobile payments from the second quarter of this year with a new SIM-based service that makes use of tokenization technology. More
Residents of Shanghai and Beijing can now ride the metro and pay for tickets with their China Telecom NFC smartphones... More
There are signs that global bank HSBC could be preparing to roll out host card emulation (HCE) based NFC payments on Android devices in the UK, after an NFC World reader spotted that the HSBC mobile banking app now shows as an option under the “Tap & pay” menu in Android’s settings... More
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has added support for host card emulation (HCE) to its RBC mobile app, “allowing Canadians to pay with most Android mobile phones without worrying about being on the right mobile network or having the right SIM card.”... More
Australian carrier Optus has teamed up with Visa and Heritage Bank to launch an NFC mobile payment service that lets customers load up to A$500 into a prepaid account and then make payments at any Visa contactless POS terminal... More
A total of 8bn secure elements will be shipped this year, with SIM cards accounting for 5.1bn of the total, according to new statistics released by smart security industry association Eurosmart, with the total rising to 12bn in 2020... More
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile network operator, has chosen Gemalto to supply it with NFC-enabled SIMs “to protect consumer credentials used for mobile contactless applications, starting with mass transit services in Beijing.”... More
Softcard, the US carrier-backed NFC venture formerly known as Isis, won’t have access to the NFC support in the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch until 2015, a blog post by CEO Michael Abbott suggests — and, even then, it looks as though it won’t be via a conventional NFC-enabled SIM... More
The SIMalliance has set out its recommendations for UICC configuration and feature requirements for NFC payments in a new paper called UICC Configuration for Mobile NFC Payments v1.0... More
The GSMA has published Mobile Commerce, NFC Coupons and Loyalty Acceptance, a technical proposal based on open standards that aims to provide “the tools, knowledge and methodology for mobile operators and the wider retail ecosystem to work together to develop a consistent approach to mobile loyalty and couponing”... More
Host Card Emulation (HCE) is likely to lead to higher demand for SIM-based NFC payments services and new opportunities for mobile network operators, SIMalliance — which initially warned against HCE for security reasons — has now decided... More