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

Visa is reportedly gearing up to support a “mainstream launch” of NFC mobile payments, along with a cloud-based digital wallet, according to Marc O’Brien, managing director of Visa UK and Ireland.

Mobile operator Telefónica group and Visa Europe have expanded their payments partnership to Telefónica’s European operations, marking the third tie-up between a major European mobile operator group and international payment network this year.

Telefónica UK, known as O2, launched its long anticipated O2 Wallet today, offering text-based money transfers and online product searches and purchasing, but no NFC yet.

Vodafone sees its planned prepaid payment service in its forthcoming NFC mobile wallets as a “business opportunity,” though it intends to enable many other applications, including payment from major banks, Christian Wirtz, group director for mCommerce told NFC Times.

Contactless payment continues to grow rapidly in the United Kingdom, but transaction volume is still low, and it remains open to debate whether 2011 will be a tipping point for the technology.

Telefónica O2 UK today announced some of the companies it will work with to bring its O2 Money prepaid service and mobile wallet to market on NFC phones and contactless cards this year.

Mobile operator Orange UK has launched one of the first contactless prepaid payment cards–with the application also likely to be available on NFC phones later this year.