HEADLINE NEWS
U.S.: Trial Tests Payment and Content Downloads at Stadium
A select group of fans of Atlanta professional basketball and hockey teams with Nokia 3220 NFC phones could tap to pay for food and drink at concession stands around the arena during the roughly six-month trial. They could also use the phones in reader mode, tapping smart posters to open connections on their phones to download ringtones, wallpapers and clips of their favorite players and other content.
The first major NFC trial in North America, the Atlanta pilot seemed to augur well for even larger trials and then rollouts of NFC in the U.S. After all, such big merchants as McDonald’s restaurants and 7-Eleven convenience stores were already installing contactless readers to accept cards at the point of sale with the help of subsidies from MasterCard and Visa. And Chase, a major player in the trial, had begun its large rollout of “blink” contactless cards earlier in 2005. Consumers could tap their cards and NFC phones on the same contactless readers for payment and other applications. But contactless payment has yet to take off stateside, although more banks and merchants are gradually climbing onboard. NFC activity has also failed to live up to expectations, though there appeared to be renewed interest among some telcos and smartphone makers in the technology toward the end of 2009.
* 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.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedInSyndicate
