NFC Times Exclusive: Taiwan’s NFC joint venture formed last year by the country’s five mobile operators and closed-loop payment scheme EasyCard has chosen a TSM provider for its planned TSM hub, NFC Times has learned.
The joint venture, called the Alliance Digital Technology Co., has chosen France-based Safran Morpho to build both a service provider and secure element-issuer TSM platform, sources in Taiwan told NFC Times. Morpho topped a short list of vendors that included Gemalto and a bid from one of the joint venture’s own founding members, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest operator. South Korea-based SK C&C also submitted a tender on the contract.
Sources with the joint venture told NFC Times that a major factor in the selection of Morpho was its low price for the platform technology. Chunghwa Telecom’s tender or later negotiations also significantly undercut a price from TSM market-leader Gemalto, said sources. But the Chunghwa Telecom bid was rejected by one or both of the other major Taiwanese telcos in the venture, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone.
