French mobile operators have announced they will more than double the number of NFC-enabled phones rolled out to subscribers by the end of 2012, to 2.5 million, the most of any country in Europe, they predict.
France Telecom-Orange, France’s largest operator, which is leading the NFC rollout in France, acknowledges there will be few places for French subscribers to use the phones by the end of the year.
But for Orange, it is part of a strategy to “seed the market” by equipping millions of its subscribers with phones and, soon, NFC SIM cards in hopes it will prompt banks, transit operators and other service providers to roll out services.