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 recently formed 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 is believed to have 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 offered by 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 joint venture, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone.
