NFC TimesThe premier source for news, analysis and commentary on
Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC TIMES Exclusive – The mid-tier city of Vinnytsia in the Ukraine is rolling out its first transit smart cards for payment of fares on buses and trams this summer, replacing cash, which riders have used for years.

NFC TIMES Exclusive – Some major cities plan to enable their transit fare payments in the Google Pay wallet, using NXP’s Mifare 2GO provisioning service, NXP Semiconductors confirmed to NFC Times, adding that the implementations could put the fare-payments applications on secure elements.

NFC Times Exclusive – The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has issued a request for proposal with plans to launch an NFC pilot this year followed later by a rollout, putting the authority’s Mifare-based fare-collection application mainly on Android NFC phones.

NFC Times Exclusive – TAIPEI, Taiwan – Gemalto announced this week that it is providing NFC SIM cards for Chunghwa Telecom’s commercial launch of NFC services, but availability of the SIMs to the telco’s subscribers is extremely limited and none of the telco’s shops or service centers currently have the cards, NFC Times has learned.

Netherlands-based chip supplier NXP Semiconductors reported decreased revenue for its emerging ID unit, which includes its NFC mobile transactions business, but alluded to its design win for the Samsung Galaxy S5. The company also remained optimistic about EMV and denied seeing host-card emulation as a threat.

The OSPT Alliance, a vendor group that seeks to challenge the dominance of Mifare in contactless transit ticketing, released a second version of its “mobile guidelines” Thursday, which it said would help transit authorities and transit operators to introduce mobile ticketing on NFC phones.

The Walt Disney Co. is tapping contactless and NFC technology to offer a more interactive experience for its theme park and video gaming customers.

NXP Semiconductors said that 200 smartphone and tablet models are in the pipeline carrying its NFC chips–with about 40% of them either already in production or “moving toward production over the (next) few quarters.”

Germany-based Giesecke & Devrient is the latest major smart card vendor to license Mifare technology from NXP Semiconductors, enabling G&D to put the transit fare-payment technology

Mobile trade group the GSMA today announced that major mobile operators "have voiced their commitment" to launch NFC and called for more standards to ensure interoperability of NFC services.