U.S.-based chip maker Broadcom, whose Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination wireless chips are found in such popular smartphones as the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhone 5, has announced NFC support for one of its next wireless combo chips.
Data analytics continue to be a growing focus of the business case for brands as they consider rolling out NFC tag campaigns, and it’s key to the new NFC marketing platform launched by Identive Group.
U.S.-based Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of processor chips to smartphone makers, has entered the NFC market–a move that could substantially expand the availability of NFC-enabled smartphones.
China Mobile today officially unveiled its plans for introducing NFC SIM cards and a mobile wallet, which it intends to launch early next year, to enable retail payment, transit ticketing and other applications.
Large Spanish retail bank, La Caixa, plans to begin distributing 200,000 contactless stickers this month, deciding not to wait for NFC commercial launches to start its mobile-payment rollout.
France-based chip supplier Inside Secure announced today it has completed its acquisition of the AuthenTec Embedded Security Solutions unit for $41.6 million in cash.
Globe Telecom of the Philippines is planning to expand its GCash funds-transfer and bill-payment service to the physical point of sale, and has launched a project that puts a closed-loop GCash payment application onto microSD cards.
France-based Gemalto has announced its trusted service management contract with Telecom Italia, as Italy's largest telecom gears up for the launch of its NFC mobile wallet.
More than 200 users tapped tags in smart posters and other displays at a movie theater in Mumbai, India, and about a third of them downloaded the cinema chain’s app over a six-week period, according to the wireless marketing company that ran the campaign.
China’s No. 2 mobile operator China Unicom, along with China Merchants Bank, today announced plans to launch an NFC payments service next month in Shanghai.
Two members of the board of Israel-based On Track Innovations have resigned, following pressure from dissident shareholders seeking to capture control of the board of the financially struggling contactless and NFC supplier.
Vodafone is the first mobile operator in Australia to disclose plans for a commercial NFC payment launch, though it has not announced a target date for when it plans to launch the service.
Nintendo has released its much-anticipated Wii U gaming console with NFC technology, enabling the game maker to incorporate physical objects into game play, in addition to possible support in the future for contactless payment for digital content.
As Google readies the launch of the next version of its wallet, expected to feature the addition of a physical payment card, other mobile-commerce players, including Google Wallet partner Sprint, are gearing up with their own offers.
The second-largest shareholder of Israel-based contactless and NFC vendor On Track Innovations is keeping up the pressure as he and his allies wage a battle for control of the company against its board and co-founder, Oded Bashan.
It's been nearly a month since the launch of the large Isis Mobile Wallet trial in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and so far merchants are reporting limited use of Isis by consumers, interviews by NFC Times have found.
France-based chip supplier Inside Secure has agreed to acquire the Embedded Security Solutions unit of U.S.-based AuthenTec, which designs software and hardware products used for digital rights management, virtual private networks and other network security.
Google has chosen U.S.-based Broadcom as its NFC chip supplier for its new Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet and has incorporated Broadcom’s NFC software stack in its new Android 4.2 operating system running on the devices.
European antitrust regulators have approved a planned joint venture by UK-based chip designer ARM and smart card and security companies Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient.
Austrian mobile operator A1 has pulled the plug on its plans to introduce its own payment brand at the physical point of sale, disclosing it would end an eight-month “trial” of the service by the end of the year.
Smart card and ID security company Morpho hopes to increase its EMV bank card business, as well as expand its trusted service management unit, with its acquisition of the European personalization and card manufacturing operations of American Banknote Corp.
PARIS, France – Smart card vendor association Eurosmart estimates the industry will have shipped nearly 100 million NFC-enabled SIM cards and embedded secure elements by the end of 2012–a figure it projects will double in 2013.
PARIS, France – MasterCard Worldwide and ING bank have launched a trial in the Netherlands enabling bank staffers to shop on the Web and then make online payments with a PayPass application stored on a secure element in their NFC phones.
California state officials have released a list of seven bidders it intends to award contracts to for the supply of core technology for the state’s ambitious plan to help more than 300 transit agencies roll out open-loop fare payments statewide.
The Moscow Department of Transport has announced it is launching a test of its planned “MultiTransport” mobility-as-a-service platform, which will enable users to plan and pay for rides on the Moscow Metro and other public transit, along with taxis. The city said it is planning to add other transport modes, including car-share and bike and scooter rental.
A commercial bus company serving Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, has launched contactless open-loop payments on board its new electronic buses, and reports say officials and bankers would like to see contactless EMV payments expanded to other modes of transport.
Moscow Metro has 45,000 users for its Face Pay service since launching its rollout of facial recognition fare-payments in mid-October, the transit agency said today, in releasing more details about how the service works.
Updated: The Spokane Transit Authority in Washington state confirmed that its new fare-collection system will include contactless open-loop payments–with a beta test planned for next October, a spokesman told NFC Times' sister publication Mobility Payments.
Plans by Transport for New South Wales, Australia’s largest transit agency, to launch a trial enabling users to plan, book and pay for multimodal rides is the next step toward the agency’s long-ter
The UK government’s plan to equip 700 rail stations over the next three years to accept contactless open-loop payments is a major initiative, as it seeks to replicate the success of London’s contactless pay-as-you go fare payments system elsewhere in the country–a goal that has proved elusive in the past.
A fourth city in Finland is beginning to roll out contactless open-loop payments, with “more in the pipeline,” according to one supplier on the project, making the Nordic country one of the latest hotspots for the technology.
Moscow Metro is recruiting more users to test its “Virtual Troika” card in two NFC wallets, those supporting Google Pay and Samsung Pay, as one of the world’s largest subway operators continues to seek more ways for its customers to pay for rides.
The Central Ohio Transit Authority, or COTA, officially launched its new digital-payments service Monday, including a fare-capping feature that the agency estimates will cost it $1.8 million per year in lost fare revenue, the agency confirmed to Mobility Payments.
While the trend today is for more transit agencies to introduce open-loop fare payments, closed-loop cards, either in physical form or dematerialized on smartphones and wearables, will be with us for many years to come–though perhaps in a reduced role. That’s according to a recent panel discussion at the Mobility Payments Asia Pacific 2021 conference.
Andy Taylor, senior director, global strategy for Cubic Transportation Systems contended that the MaaS market is at a crossroads and could fail if it doesn’t change course, including putting cities and public agencies firmly in the “driving seat” of MaaS apps.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – As the Covid-19 crisis sows fear among mass transit customers and causes ridership on buses, trains and trams to crash, there is heightened interest in mobile ticketing and other electronic fare payments as a way to ease the concerns and help coax wary riders to return.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – With Switzerland’s No. 2 bank, Credit Suisse, expected to participate in Apple Pay, the U.S.-based tech giant continues to chip away at resistance among major European banks to joining its digital payments service.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – With the National Football League kicking off its season in a few weeks in the U.S., fans will be using NFC, QR codes and perhaps ultrasonic signals on their mobile devices, in addition to tapping contactless-enabled paper tickets, to attend football games and other events at all 31 NFL stadiums.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Most issuers in the U.S. have so far held back from rolling out contactless or dual-interface cards, but merchant acceptance has been quietly building over the past few years, despite some large U.S. retailers balking at accepting contactless cards and NFC-enabled devices.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight –Payments industry backers suggest that U.S. banks could have an incentive to begin contactless rollouts soon, but in the absence of deadlines from the major payments networks, which are rapidly approaching in other markets, there's no guarantee of rollouts in the U.S. on the horizon.
NFC TIMES Exclusive –As the digital payments ecosystem moves into 2018, it is dealing with many of the same unfulfilled promises, works in progress and unfinished business as in 2017.
NFC TIMES Exclusive – As more U.S. merchants launch their own payments apps, some seem positioned to offer serious competition to Apple Pay and the other NFC “Pays” wallets.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight –Promoters of contextual commerce are looking to a range of connected devices, including smart appliances and such home hubs as Alexa–along with a host of mobile devices–to enable consumers to pay in almost every context. But many challenges remain for what could become a “very disjointed” array of payment options, experts say.
