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China’s No. 2 mobile operator China Unicom, along with China Merchants Bank, today announced plans to launch an NFC payments service next month in Shanghai.

China Mobile reportedly plans to sell 10 million 3G NFC phones next year and to sign up 3 million users, according to a presentation by the telco’s vice general manager for e-commerce Wednesday at the NFC & Mobile Money Summit.

Handset maker HTC and China Merchants Bank have officially announced the launch of a mobile-payment service that puts a contactless payment application on an embedded secure chip in HTC Android phones.

China’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile, is gearing up for a major trial of SIM-based NFC services next February, which could extend to several cities and use five or more Android-based NFC phones.

China’s giant mobile operator, China Mobile, and the country's big domestic payment network, China UnionPay, have signed an agreement to cooperate on mobile payment, including using SIM cards in NFC phones.

Handset maker HTC and Cathay United Bank of Taiwan, among other parties, are expected to announce plans to launch an NFC mobile-payment project putting a MasterCard PayPass credit application on microSD cards that can run in a full NFC phone model from HTC.

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.

Three Taiwanese banks are seeking to enable their customers to tap their mobile phones to make purchases with MasterCard PayPass using microSD cards in a full Android NFC phone from HTC, as well as an iPhone attachment with an embedded chip, as part of separate NFC mobile-payment projects.

While mobile operators continue to push for the SIM card to become the de facto secure element in NFC phones, some banks and other service providers are still seeking alternatives.

Taiwan-based chip maker MStar Semiconductor announced today it is supplying NFC technology to Russia-based phone maker Fly for one or more handsets for the European market to be released as early as next month.