HEADLINE NEWS

Samsung to Embed Secure Element in Galaxy S III, Other NFC Phones

May 14 2012 (All day)

Samsung Electronics and NXP Semiconductors have confirmed that Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, will sport an embedded secure chip, in addition to supporting applications on SIM cards.

American Express Onboard for Isis Two-City Launch

American Express and Isis have announced that AmEx plans to participate in the two large NFC pilots Isis plans to launch this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

HTC Steps Up NFC Phone Presence with Three High-End Handsets

May 10 2012 (All day)

New Orleans – Phone maker HTC is displaying three high-end NFC phones at the International CTIA Wireless show in New Orleans, including its Droid Incredible 4G LTE, destined for U.S.

MasterCard Unveils Wallet Offer; Expands PayPass Name to Online Transactions

NEW ORLEANS – MasterCard today announced its answer to Visa’s digital wallet and other wallets planned by competitors, introducing its PayPass Wallet Services.

MasterCard Announces NFC Device Certifications; New NFC Mark

May 9 2012 (All day)

MasterCard has announced certifications for 17 NFC phones as well as its own mark that handset makers could display on device packaging, advertisements or even on the devices themselves, showing the phone is able to do contactless payments with MasterCard PayPass.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy S III, Supporting NFC Payments and Enhanced P2P

May 4 2012 (All day)

Samsung Electronics has introduced its much-anticipated Galaxy S III, which, as expected, will support NFC for mobile payment, along with an enhanced version of Google’s Android Beam peer-to-peer pairing-and-sharing feature.

Barnes & Noble First E-Reader Seller to Disclose Plans for NFC Support

In a first for an e-reader seller, the CEO of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble said the company plans to include NFC chips in its Nook e-readers, which he said could make the connection between the devices and the company’s physical stores.

Airline to Introduce NFC App Following Successful Sticker Launch

May 3 2012 (All day)

Scandinavian Airlines plans to introduce an NFC application for frequent flyers as early as this summer, enabling those with Android NFC phones to tap for a faster flow through check-in, security screening and boarding.

Report: Google and PayPal Challenge UK Joint Venture Plans

Google and PayPal have reportedly expressed concerns to European antitrust regulators, saying they fear that if major UK mobile operators are allowed to form their proposed NFC mobile-commerce joint venture, they would have too much power to control secure elements in NFC phones, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

Telefónica UK Launches O2 Wallet; Promises NFC Later in 2012

Telefónica UK, known as O2, launched its long anticipated O2 Wallet today, offering text-based money transfers and online product searches and purchasing, but no NFC yet.

Wentker Departs Visa; Bains Leaves GSM Association

Dave Wentker, considered the No. 2 man in Visa Inc.’s mobile-payment unit and a former vice chairman of the NFC Forum, has left the payment network after more than 15 years, NFC Times has learned.

Oberthur Gets Telco Group TSM Contract but Loses Key French Bank

France-based Oberthur Technologies has won a key contract to serve as trusted service manager for France Telecom-Orange group, but lost a TSM contract with big French bank BNP Paribas, NFC Times has learned.

Chunghwa Telecom

Headquarters: 
Taiwan

Taiwan’s largest telco has been one of the major players in the country gearing up for NFC, having held at least three important trials.

But like its main rivals, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone, CHT has had to put rollout plans on hold, waiting for phones and the rest of the ecosystem to catch up with their enthusiasm for contactless mobile payment, ticketing and other applications.

Chunghwa Telecom hopes to introduce NFC services by the end of 2010 on Android phones and is counting on Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC or Taiwanese-contract device maker Foxlink to produce models by then.

Chunghwa said it hopes to have one or more NFC phones on display at the Taipei International Flora Expo, which begins in November 2010 in Taiwan’s capital, according to reports, noting HTC was likely to produce the devices for the show.

A Chunghwa project manager told NFC Times the telco will target payment and ticketing applications with the Android phones. The telco is getting some government funding for its work on Android devices as well as for development of trusted service management services for NFC applications, along with transit fare-collection company EasyCard.

Key figures: 
Financial Results 2009 2007 Change
Revenue 2,295 2,323 -1.2%
In millions of US$ for mobile operations
Customer Base 2009 2008 Change
Subscribers 9.2 8.9 3.3%
Market Share 36.3% 37.4% -2.9%
In millions
Subscriber figures for Dec. 2008 and Nov. 2009
Source: Chunghwa Telecom
Major NFC and Contactless competitors: 

Taiwan Mobile, Far EasTone

Last Updated: 
Feb 2010
Author: 
Balaban