Taiwan’s five mobile operators and its major contactless payment provider plan to sign a memo of understanding tomorrow with the goal of forming an Isis-style joint venture to help them roll out NFC services, NFC Times has learned.
The agreement will include the island nation’s three major telcos, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone, along with fare-collection and retail-payment provider EasyCard Corp., sources told NFC Times. Two smaller mobile operators, Vibo Telecom and Asia Pacific Telecom, are also expected to join in signing the agreement.
Update: The parties signed the memo of understanding Thursday evening, NFC Times has learned. End update.
A great development! Thanks for the article, Dan. It appears that the Taiwanese are the latest to realise the importance of having a public transport application that you can build off for mobile payments. Let's hope that Google and ISIS are taking note.
Thanks, Mike, and I'm told that EasyCard Corp., provider of the transport/retail e-purse application pushed the mobile operators toward this deal.