Singapore: Telco, Bank, Transit-Purse Operator Launch Flex-Antenna Trial

 

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SingaporeSingapore
Scope: 
Trial
Status: 
Planned
Launch: 
Dec 2010
Main Application: 
Payment
Mobile Operator: 
StarHub
Service Provider (application): 
DBS Bank (MasterCard PayPass)
Service Provider (application): 
EZ-Link (ez-link)
Merchants: 
1,000-plus MasterCard PayPass acceptance points and more than 10,000 ez-link terminals, including taxis
Users: 
1,000
NFC Handsets: 
N/A
TSM*: 
N/A
Secure Element: 
SIM
Other Vendors: 
MasterCard Worldwide (PayPass) Gemalto (N-Flex), STMicroelectronics (NFC chip)

About 1,000 mutual customers of mobile operator StarHub and DBS Bank will participate in the eight-month trial. They will have to go to StarHub to have the SIM overlay with flexible antenna product installed, then they would be able to tap their phones to pay where MasterCard PayPass or the ez-link closed-loop transit purse is accepted. The latter includes retail locations and buses and trains. The flexible antenna doesn’t work with all phones.

NFC Times Take: 

The long-planned trial uses a SIM overlay chip with a flexible antenna, designed to turn most handsets into contactless-mobile devices. The flex-antenna is wrapped around or on top of the phone battery. It doesn’t work with all phones and can be difficult to install for many subscribers. That’s why it is seen as a bridge technology by most observers. MasterCard seems to like the technology and is also involved with what has been billed as a commercial launch in Turkey with Garanti bank. That project uses the same vendor’s product as in Singapore, N-Flex from Gemalto. The Turkish launch had been delayed since last summer.

 

 

* Trusted Service Manager: Defined loosely to include companies or other organizations securely distributing, provisioning and managing applications, generally over the air, on secure elements in NFC mobile phones; or licensing their platforms for this purpose.
N/A: Not available or not applicable.
Last update: Nov. 2010

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