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U.S. mobile carrier Sprint plans to make NFC a major focus at its 11^th annual developers' conference, to be held Nov. 2 to 4 in Silicon Valley–part of a big push the telco is making to roll out the technology.

Sprint, which Sept. 19 launched the NFC-enabled Google Wallet with Google and such partners as MasterCard Worldwide and Citigroup, plans to put a number of new phones on sale by early next year.

At the Open Solutions Conference, Sprint and Google will lead several sessions focused on NFC and mobile commerce, including one on business opportunities around the Google Wallet and using NFC technology and a “hands-on coding session” on how to incorporate NFC technology into applications, said Sprint.

The telco also called the conference a “green event,” with plans to enable attendees to tap their Nexus S 4G NFC smartphones on smart posters to be displayed at each booth in the convention center to receive product or service information, thus cutting the need for brochures and other printed material. Users also will be able to make purchases from NFC-enabled vending machines.

“We’re using NFC as an example at this conference of (using) green technology,” said Brian T. Smith, director of open platforms at Sprint told NFC Times.

While Sprint has only one NFC device at present, the Nexus S 4G, it plans to put a significant number of NFC phones on sale by the first part of 2012, Smith said, though he declined to elaborate. 

“NFC-enabled devices will be a big focus for us in 2012,” he said.