TmoNews reports that Isis NFC SIMs will be available from T-Mobile stores in Salt Lake City and Austin from Monday 1 October... More
Security
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
LevelUp adds NFC to zero transaction fee merchant marketing platform
The Google Ventures-backed service has introduced a new POS terminal that supports NFC as well as mobile barcodes and is available free of charge and with no transaction fees to merchants that participate in its payments and marketing programme. More
HID launches employee ID platform that works with badges, tokens and NFC phones
“For the first time, customers will be able to provision and manage credentials over the air with the same ease and simplicity as downloading a song from a cloud-based music service,” says the employee ID giant. 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
Gartner places NFC in ‘trough of disillusionment’
NFC payments are five to ten years away from mainstream adoption and on the crossover between the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ and the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’, according to this year’s Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. NFC as a whole is expected to hit the mainstream more quickly, but is still two to five years away from maturity. More
Google Wallet 2.0: The easy way to pay with NFC?
Google has unveiled a new version of its Google Wallet service that avoids the requirement for individual payment cards to be loaded onto a secure element. Instead, a prepaid MasterCard which draws funds from linked credit and debit cards is pre-loaded onto the secure element. More
Forum responds to Black Hat presentation on NFC vulnerabilities
“The NFC Forum works to ensure that tools are available to allow applications to operate with the appropriate level of security,” says the industry standards body. “Mr Miller’s demonstration underscores the importance of providing appropriate security measures at the application layer and enabling users to adjust security settings to suit their own needs and preferences.” More
Apple buys fingerprint biometrics specialist Authentec
The company’s products include a fingerprint sensor for NFC mobile phones that ensures only the registered user of a device can gain access to their mobile wallet. More
Circuit offers NFC security boost
A memristor-based circuit that spits out a steady stream of true random numbers could hold the key to enhanced security in NFC transactions, reports IEEE Spectrum... More
LG CNS to introduce NFC access control service
The Korean IT services supplier has partnered with carriers KT and LG U+ to enable employers to use NFC mobile phones to replace staff ID badges. Additional services such as payroll integration and payments are planned for the future. More
Apple awarded patent for mobile airline ticketing and travel service
The iTravel patent covers the use of an NFC-enabled iPhone for buying an airline ticket, checking in baggage and passing through security. More
Telenor reports results of Oslo NFC payments trial
“Mobile payment is something that people want and will use, if the solutions are adequate,” says Telenor’s Viktoria Erngard. “But in order to succeed in the long run, we need to get as many merchants on board as possible and offer more NFC-enabled phones.” More
GlobalPlatform and TCG to work on mobile security standards
Standards bodies GlobalPlatform and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) have formed a joint work group to collaborate on mobile device security standards... More
GlobalPlatform releases secure element security specification
Secure element standards body GlobalPlatform has released Secure Element Access Control, a new specification designed to ensure that unauthorised applications residing in a mobile device are unable to communicate with an NFC secure element (SE)... More
University of San Francisco to extend NFC campus card service
An NFC solution that integrates fully with the university’s existing campus card system to enable students to access rooms and make laundry payments has been hailed as “a first-rate experience for our students and our staff” and is now to be expanded. More
Chinese city to get NFC smart meters
Advanced energy-metering supplier Wasion Group is to begin deploying new NFC-enabled post-pay electricity meters in the city of Chongqing, China, from this month... More
Megafon launches NFC transit ticketing service
The Russian mobile network operator is providing customers in the city of Yekaterinburg with the ability to store bus, tram and metro tickets on either a mobile phone with built-in NFC or a SIM+antenna add-on that works with standard handsets. More
Paypal brings mobile payments to UK stores
Online payments giant PayPal is continuing its expansion into offline payments with the launch of a barcode-based mobile payments service in the UK... More