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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC chip supplier Inside Secure has announced support for a new category of low-cost but nonstandard RFID tags that it said could be used in place of standard tags to send data to NFC phones.

Google is working on a mobile-payment wallet and advertising service that could launch this year, enabling consumers to make purchases by tapping their NFC-enabled Android phones, sources told NFC Times, following an article today that the Web giant was considering the move.

NFC transit ticketing is one of the most highly anticipated applications for NFC phones, especially in such regions as Europe, where the infrastructure of contactless readers is already in place in many cities.

France Telecom-Orange Group has announced plans to roll out SIM cards supporting NFC services to most of its European operators by the second half of 2011 and has stated its intention that more than half of the new smartphones models it buys will support NFC.

France Telecom-Orange will put NFC phones on sale in its shops throughout France starting in January–without the NFC services to match–hoping to seed the market with devices.

Turkey’s Garanti Bank and mobile operator Avea have commercially launched their planned mobile-payment service, using SIM overlay chips with flexible antennas to enable customers to tap the

Visa Europe is apparently preparing to launch one or more trials with new iPhone attachments, which would enable consumers to tap their iPhones to pay with Visa payWave.

As NFC smartphones head to market and big mobile operator groups gear up to offer mobile wallets on them, units of two of the largest telecom equipment and services vendors see a market in the making.

After years of preparation, Discover Financial Services has begun its first commercial launch of contactless cards–along with one of the first rollouts of contactless stickers in the United States.

France-based chip supplier Inside Contactless plans to change its name to Inside Secure, as it continues to digest its purchase of Atmel Corp.’s smart card unit and seeks to broaden its market share.

Deutsche Telekom is gearing up to offer NFC services in four of its major European markets, including Germany, NFC Times has learned.

There was little surprise at Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s announcement Monday that the next version of the company’s mobile operating system, Android, would support NFC.