HEADLINE NEWS

ZTE: Europe is Next Target for NFC Phones

Published: May 21 2012

China-based phone maker ZTE indicated it will be targeting Europe with its NFC phones, although it did not specify models or release dates.

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

Published: May 14 2012
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.

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American Express Onboard for Isis Two-City Launch

Published: May 11 2012

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.

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

Published: May 9 2012
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.

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MasterCard Unveils Wallet Offer; Expands PayPass Name to Online Transactions

Published: May 7 2012

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

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MasterCard Announces NFC Device Certifications; New NFC Mark

Published: May 4 2012
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.

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

Published: May 3 2012
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.

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

Published: May 2 2012

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.

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Airline to Introduce NFC App Following Successful Sticker Launch

Published: May 1 2012
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.

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Report: Google and PayPal Challenge UK Joint Venture Plans

Published: Apr 30 2012

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.

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Telefónica UK Launches O2 Wallet; Promises NFC Later in 2012

Published: Apr 26 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.

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Wentker Departs Visa; Bains Leaves GSM Association

Published: Apr 25 2012

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.

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Italy: Large Italian Bank Distributes NFC Phones for SIM-based NFC Payment Trial

Published: Feb 22 2012
Milan and Turin, Italy
Scope: 
Trial
Launch: 
Dec 2011
Main Application: 
Payment
Mobile Operator: 
Nòverca (MVNO)
Service Provider (application): 
Banca Intesa Sanpaolo (MasterCard PayPass)
Merchants: 
3,000 point-of-sale terminals in the two cities including in cafés and supermarkets
Users: 
600
NFC Handsets: 
Samsung Wave 578
TSM*: 
N/A
Secure Element: 
SIM
Other Vendors: 
Setefi (processor, acquirer), Giesecke & Devrient (NFC SIM card), NXP Semiconductors (NFC phone chip)

Large Italian bank, Intesa Sanpaolo is distributing 600 Samsung Wave 578 NFC phones to customers, employees and students at universities in the northern Italian cities of Milan and Turin for the trial. The project will involve mobile virtual network operator Nòverca, which the bank partly owns. Participants in the two cities will be able to tap to pay at about 3,000 point-of-sale terminals provided by Setefi, Intesa Sanpaolo’s acquiring and processing arm.

NFC Times Take: 

The big Italian bank has been interested in contactless payment in Italy for the past few years, though the rollout of contactless cards and terminals in the country remains small. It had issued at least 100,000 dual-interface contactless cards as of early 2010. But the bank’s interest in contactless payment and its funding of the large NFC trial, including phones, SIMs and POS terminals, indicates Sanpaolo is serious about an eventual commercial launch of NFC mobile payment.

 

* 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: Feb. 2012