NFC Times Exclusive: France’s largest mobile operator, Orange, has concluded a deal with Visa to support its launch of Orange Cash in France, the latest mobile operator to announce plans to roll out its own branded prepaid payment service on NFC phones.
Orange announced the plans today, disclosing its intention to launch the service nationwide in the second quarter of 2014, following a small launch early next year in two French cities, Strasbourg and Caen.
The Visa payWave application is expected to come preloaded on Orange NFC SIMs. The telco says it is generally issuing NFC SIMs to all new subscribers and is bundling NFC SIMs with new NFC phones or plans to do so. Orange is positioning the payments service as a cash replacement and a way to get subscribers started on NFC.