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As Germany gears up for NFC, German bank Dortmunder Volksbank along with Telefónica (O2) Germany have launched a small pilot putting a credit application onto SIM cards in Western Germany.

Telefónica (O2) Germany has announced it will launch its NFC-enabled O2 Wallet in mid-February, beginning as a “friendly user test” on two Android smartphones that will enable users to tap to make purchases with the telco’s own payments service, mpass.

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.

Telefónica Germany has announced it is moving forward with its planned expansion of the telco-owned e-commerce payment scheme mpass to the physical point of sale, but has apparently dropped plans to introduce its own brand.

Deutsche Telekom intends to make its move into the payments market at the physical point of sale in direct competition with banks, with an NFC payments commercial launch planned in Poland this year, before later expanding to Germany and other European countries.

MasterCard Worldwide and Germany-based Deutsche Telekom group have signed a partnership agreement that will help the telco launch a prepaid PayPass application for its planned NFC mobile wallet, NFC Times has learned.

German mobile operators Telekom Deutschland, Vodafone Germany and Telefónica Germany today announced an agreement to form a joint venture to expand their mpass mobile payment service to the physical point of sale using NFC technology.

Three major German mobile operators plan to launch a trial of their own payment brand using contactless stickers in three cities before the end of the year, NFC Times has learned.

Three major German mobile operators plan to launch their own payment scheme, seeking to expand their small Internet payment service, mpass, to shops and restaurants using NFC phones, a source told NFC Times.