HEADLINE NEWS

OTI to Supply Contactless and NFC Readers for Gasoline Stations in North America

Published: May 21 2013

Israel-based contactless and NFC vendor On Track Innovations announced Monday it had received an order for 30,000 readers for point-of-sale terminals at retail gasoline stations in North America.

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Taxis in Major U.S. Cities to Get NFC-Enabled Video Ads

Published: May 16 2013

Riders in 5,000 taxicabs in the U.S. would be able to tap on NFC tags on video advertising screens to download apps, brand information, coupons, maps, music and videos, according to technology suppliers that have equipped the taxis for potential advertising campaigns.

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Analyst: Banks Have More to Fear from Cloud-Based Technologies Than NFC

Published: May 13 2013

Banks have much more to fear from cloud-based mobile payment than from NFC, even if mobile operators control the secure elements that hold the banks’ payment applications.

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GSMA Proposes Global Standard for NFC-Enabled Loyalty and Couponing–Using SIM Cards

Published: May 9 2013
May 10 2013 (All day)

The GSMA mobile operator trade group is proposing a global standard for how point-of-sale terminals talk to NFC-enabled mobile wallets to enable consumers to redeem coupons and rewards.

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Taiwanese Bank Gets Approval for NFC-Enabled Credit Cards; Okay for Other Banks Expected

Published: May 9 2013

Taiwanese banking regulators, as expected, have approved the first bank to issue mobile credit cards that could be downloaded over the air to SIM cards.

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UK Retailer Marks & Spencer Sees Growing Use of Contactless

Published: May 7 2013

Marks & Spencer, one of the UK’s largest retailers, announced today it had rolled out contactless payment to 644 of its UK stores and said 14% of its card transactions under £20 (US$30.97) are contactless.

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Identive Reports Growing NFC Business; Blames Flat Sales, Losses, on U.S. Budget Cuts

Published: May 3 2013

U.S.-based Identive Group reported growing NFC and smart card reader business, but fell back into the red during for the first quarter, a loss it largely blamed on U.S. federal government budget cuts.

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German Bank and Telco Hold Small NFC Trial; Larger Launches Planned in Country This Year

Published: May 2 2013

As Germany gears up for NFC, German bank Dortmunder Volksbank along with Telefónica (O2) Germany have launched a small pilot putting a credit application onto SIM cards in Western Germany.

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Cashless Technology Company Announces Rollout of Isis SmartTap on Vending Machines

Published: May 1 2013

Vending technology company USA Technologies plans to integrate the SmartTap mobile-commerce software into all of the company’s nearly 100,000 NFC-enabled terminals on vending machines nationwide.

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Infineon Introduces New Embedded Secure Element, Hoping to Tap Growing Market

Published: Apr 30 2013

Germany-based Infineon Technologies today introduced a new embedded secure element, targeting the growing market for chips that handset makers are including in their NFC-enabled devices.

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Vendor Group: NFC Secure Element Market to Grow by Two-Thirds This Year

Published: Apr 29 2013

Smart card vendor association Eurosmart has substantially increased its estimate for NFC secure element shipments for 2012–by 50% to 150 million units–and forecasts that secure element shipments will grow by another 67% in 2013 to 250 million units.

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Gemalto Reveals Some Details of MCX Deal; Vendor Will Earn Fees for Transactions

Published: Apr 25 2013

France-based smart card and security vendor Gemalto will operate the mobile-payment platform for U.S. merchant group MCX, earning a fee for every transaction, in addition to what appears to be a hosting fee it says is worth tens of millions.

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Australia: Vodafone Announces Plans for NFC Service; But Still Trialing Technology

Published: Nov 21 2012
Sydney, Australia
Scope: 
Trial
Launch: 
Nov 2012
Main Application: 
Payment
Mobile Operator: 
Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Service Provider (application): 
ANZ bank (Visa payWave)
Merchants: 
100,000-plus payWave terminals in Australia, others elsewhere
Users: 
101 employees of Vodafone and Visa
NFC Handsets: 
Samsung Galaxy S III
TSM*: 
N/A
Secure Element: 
SIM
Other Vendors: 
Visa Inc. (payWave application), Gemalto (NFC SIM cards), Rev (prepaid payment processing), NXP Semiconductors (NFC phone chip)

Trial is a prelude to a commercial launch, that might begin next year, according to Vodafone. The telco is putting a prepaid payment application issued by ANZ bank on NFC SIMs the telco issues. The operator plans to offer its NFC-enabled SmartPass app, which is expected to be available for Android and Windows Phone 8 devices. There would likely be other applications available, though Vodafone is not commenting on that. Users will be able to tap to pay where Visa payWave is accepted, without entering a PIN or signing a receipt. Subscribers would be able to fund the card with other Visa- or MasterCard-branded accounts. 

NFC Times Take: 

Vodafone is the first mobile operator in Australia to disclose plans for a commercial NFC payment launch, though it has not announced a target date for when it plans to launch the service. The service is expected to begin sometime in 2013, however. Thomas Roets, general manager of strategy, planning and business development for the operator, predicted that 80% of new smartphones Vodafone sells in 2013 to postpaid subscribers will be NFC-enabled. He reportedly said these will mainly be Android and Windows Phone 8 phones. Australia is seen as a contactless hot spot and promising market for the launch of NFC payment services. There are more than 100,000 contactless terminals in Australia that support Visa payWave, according to Vodafone and Visa, which gives Australia one of the highest penetrations of contactless terminals worldwide. All or most of the same terminals would support MasterCard PayPass, as well.

* Trusted Service Manager: Defined loosely to include companies or other organizations securely distributing, provisioning and managing applications, generally over the air, on secure elements in NFC mobile phones; or licensing their platforms for this purpose.
N/A: Not available or not applicable.
 
Last update: Nov. 2012