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Taiwan: No. 2 Telco Holds Trial Though Promised Rollout Delayed
The trial used the early Nokia NFC phone model, the 3220. They could pay at more than 2,000 merchants in Taiwan that accept MasterCard PayPass card and also download electronic coupons over the air by tapping the phone on tags embedded in smart posters.
Despite the early model Nokia phone with the NFC shell snapped on, a post-trial survey showed users liked tapping their phones to pay more than they did contactless cards. Taiwan Mobile, the country’s second largest mobile carrier, had big plans for the technology and even allowed France-based vendor Gemalto to announce the operator had hired it as a trusted service manager to help it rollout NFC starting nationwide in 2008. There has yet to be a rollout. In late 2009, Taiwan Mobile was offering an HTC phone with stickers in the back cover supporting Taipei's popular EasyCard transit-ticketing service, a source told NFC Times.
Post-trial surveys showed more than 75% of respondents preferred the phone payment to conventional credit cards, according to MasterCard. And a quarter of respondents who also used MasterCard PayPass cards issued by Fubon bank said they used the phone more often to pay, more than three times per month, than they did contactless cards—roughly two and a half times per month. According to Fubon, more than 80% of respondents did not set a password on their handsets for extra security of the payment transactions. Moreover, most respondents said they believe merchants need to become more familiar with the mobile contactless transaction process.
* 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.
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