China’s giant mobile operator, China Mobile, is expanding its contactless-mobile service to Beijing and other markets in China using specially equipped contactless SIM cards it has developed, according to a market researcher.
That will be in addition to the four cities or provinces where the telco has begun issuing its “RF-SIM” cards, Terry Xie, director of the International Advisory Service for U.S.-based research firm Mercator Advisory Group, told NFC Times. Xie completed research on the topic in December.
China Mobile’s Mobile Pay service includes both remote payments, via the network, as well as proximity payments, using the contactless interface of the new SIMs. The telco is also signing up merchants to accept contactless payments with a Mobile Purse on the cards. And it plans to allow subscribers to tap their phones for contactless ticketing, both at sports or entertainment venues and for transit-fare collection.
This technology was presented by Telecomitalia, in particular by myself 4 years ago, this SIM was called Z-SIM, because use the ZigBee technology.