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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Apple Tuesday disclosed plans to launch its mobile payments service in four more small markets, including three countries in the Nordics, with the tech giant seeing higher usage of Apple Pay outside of the U.S., where NFC-enabled POS terminals are still not widely available.

NFC TIMES Exclusive –  Danske Bank’s MobilePay service in Denmark is one of the few mobile-wallet success stories globally, though on a small scale. Now the bank is planning to expand to other Nordic countries and seeks to continue to use BLE technology, not NFC, to enable the in-store piece of its mobile payments service.

NFC TIMES Exclusive – With Apple showing no signs of backing off its policy of restricting use of its NFC technology to Apple Pay only, banks and payments services providers are looking for ways to enable their iPhone-packing customers to pay with their phones in stores, especially in countries where Apple Pay hasn’t yet launched.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – As “Pays” mobile payments services, such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, continue to expand internationally, domestic debit networks and their payments technology providers want to be ready to enable banks to plug into the new wallets, if and when they launch.

Scandinavian Airlines plans to introduce an NFC application for frequent flyers as early as this summer, enabling those with Android NFC phones to tap for a faster flow through check-in, security screening and boarding.

A decision by the European Commission to launch an in-depth investigation into the proposed NFC m-commerce joint venture by the United Kingdom’s three largest mobile operators could create delays in NFC rollouts in the UK and problems in other European countries, where telcos are planning similar joint ventures.

Four Swedish mobile operators announced they have formed a mobile-payments joint venture, the latest telcos to form a company to help them roll out NFC and other services.

Denmark’s four mobile operators are the latest telcos to announce an NFC joint venture, seeking to roll out mobile wallets on their own terms.