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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

France Telecom-Orange and China Mobile, the largest mobile operators in their respective home markets, have signed a memo of understanding to work together to speed the commercialization of NFC SIM cards.

Transport for London officially announced the launch of the first phase of its open-loop payment service, allowing riders to tap their contactless credit, debit and charge cards to pay fares on more than 8,000 buses.

U.S.-based chip maker Broadcom, whose Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination wireless chips are found in such popular smartphones as the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhone 5, has announced NFC support for one of its next wireless combo chips.

Data analytics continue to be a growing focus of the business case for brands as they consider rolling out NFC tag campaigns, and it’s key to the new NFC marketing platform launched by Identive Group.

China Mobile today officially unveiled its plans for introducing NFC SIM cards and a mobile wallet, which it intends to launch early next year, to enable retail payment, transit ticketing and other applications.

France-based chip supplier Inside Secure announced today it has completed its acquisition of the AuthenTec Embedded Security Solutions unit for $41.6 million in cash.

France-based Gemalto has announced its trusted service management contract with Telecom Italia, as Italy's largest telecom gears up for the launch of its NFC mobile wallet.

More than 200 users tapped tags in smart posters and other displays at a movie theater in Mumbai, India, and about a third of them downloaded the cinema chain’s app over a six-week period, according to the wireless marketing company that ran the campaign.

Two members of the board of Israel-based On Track Innovations have resigned, following pressure from dissident shareholders seeking to capture control of the board of the financially struggling contactless and NFC supplier.

Nintendo has released its much-anticipated Wii U gaming console with NFC technology, enabling the game maker to incorporate physical objects into game play, in addition to possible support in the future for contactless payment for digital content.

The second-largest shareholder of Israel-based contactless and NFC vendor On Track Innovations is keeping up the pressure as he and his allies wage a battle for control of the company against its board and co-founder, Oded Bashan.

France-based chip supplier Inside Secure has agreed to acquire the Embedded Security Solutions unit of U.S.-based AuthenTec, which designs software and hardware products used for digital rights management, virtual private networks and other network security.