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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

Transport for London officially announced the launch of the first phase of its open-loop payment service, allowing riders to tap their contactless credit, debit and charge cards to pay fares on more than 8,000 buses.

Transport for London plans to begin allowing riders to use contactless bank cards to pay fares on buses later this week, according to a report.

LONDON – The head of London’s large Oyster card program expressed frustration with the pace of development of NFC, complaining the technology isn’t ready for London transit riders to use to pay fares.

Transport for London has confirmed it will miss its deadline for accepting open-loop credit and debit card payments on London buses in time for the start of the Summer Olympics.

The two UK mobile operators that have announced plans to launch NFC services this year, Everything Everywhere and Telefónica O2 UK, are not yet committing to awarding the planned "Olympics Phone" from Visa Europe and Samsung Electronics a spot in their NFC lineups for next year, but they will at least give the phone an internal tryout.

Newham College is distributing NFC phones to four teachers, who will tap them to the ID cards of 120 students in place of taking roll call each day.