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.

New Samsung NFC Phone Gets First Trial in Spain

BARCELONA – Samsung Electronics has introduced its new NFC phone for its first public trial, lending more than 400 units for a demonstration at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Spain’s largest telco, Telefónica, along with La Caixa Bank, Visa and a few vendors, are putting on the trial at the annual exposition and conference organized by the GSM Association. They handed out the touch-screen phones to more than 400 attendees with 75 euros (US$102) loaded in La Caixa Visa accounts. The users can tap during the four-day event to pay at more than 30 merchant locations the bank has equipped to accept Visa payWave around the congress center.

“This is the first time you will use a Visa application on the SIM card,” Pablo Montesano, director of new businesses, financial services for Telefónica Spain, told NFC Times in Barcelona.

PayWave on a SIM was reportedly among payment applications used earlier as part of a multibank trial held in France starting in 2007. But the Barcelona demo and a much larger trial Telefónica, La Caixa and Visa plan this spring in the resort town of Sitges would perhaps be the first NFC trials featuring only payWave on the SIM.

The phone for the Telefónica trials, the Samsung S5230, known as the Star or Player One, is an EDGE handset–not a 3G phone. But Samsung said it is one of the handset maker’s top sellers.

French operators also plan to use the phone for their much-touted NFC project planned for the spring in Nice.

“We decided to put NFC in those devices to increase (the number of) NFC devices in the market,” said a representative for Samsung during a conference session at the Mobile World Congress. “We have a plan to introduce 3G (NFC) devices in the second half of this year, but it depends on the infrastructure readiness.”

The Mobile World Congress trial is only a preview for the larger trial the organizers plan to hold in May in Sitges, near Barcelona. Plans call for 1,500 users and 500 merchant locations for the project. Organizers plan to subsidize the cost of contactless point-of-sale terminals for the merchants. Spain has not yet rolled out contactless terminals or cards.

Telefónica also plans a multiapplication trial among employees at its Madrid headquarters. Besides payment with Visa payWave, there will be a closed-loop payment application for purchases at vending machines and cafeterias, a metro-ticketing application, and physical-access control, Montesano told NFC Times.

He said during a conference session that Telefónica sees two advantages for banks, transit operators and other service providers to roll out NFC. One is cutting costs by enabling the service providers to avoid having to issue and manage some of their card base.

An even greater advantage is enabling issuers to communicate directly with customers, sending them information and promotions over the network, which they could view and interact with on their phones.

Of course, telcos expect to get paid for providing the network and other infrastructure for this enhanced service. Montesano told NFC Times that Telefónica does not believe the SIM-rental model, in which telcos rent space to service providers, is the only way for operators to collect revenue from NFC. But he declined to detail alternatives.

Article comments

brad32's picture
brad32 Apr 20 2010

Very great news I think. Despite the fact that this article is written before several months, but I have not known that Samsung Electronics has introduced its new NFC phone for its first public trial. Maybe I have missed this news... This mobile phone looks fantastic! I really would like to by it for myself. Have anyone known when it will be published in the mobile phone stories? Maybe have anyone tried this device? It would be really nice to hear some responses about this Samsung from other people. Thanks a lot one more time for the great and attractive information and I will be waiting for more news about this Samsung NFC phone from you in the future. Respectfully, Brad Nollton from mobile development

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