NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Samsung today said it had “officially” launched its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, in Sweden and the United Arab Emirates after “early-access launches” in these countries, making it the first of the global “Pays” wallets to fully launch in either the Nordics or the Middle East.
NFC Times Exclusive –Sweden-based Seamless Distribution told NFC Times it will use a proxy-card architecture, along with host card emulation, to enable NFC payments from its SEQR mobile wallet, a move the company hopes will help it greatly expand the acceptance network for its wallet.
Dutch mobile operators and banks have decided not to form a joint venture to roll out NFC services together, saying “developments in the market” were responsible for ending the deal that was nearly three years in the making.
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.
In one of the first pilots of its kind, guests and employees of the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden, will be able to check-in, receive their door keys and enter their rooms, all with their NFC phones.
The eight-month pilot is one of the first of its kind enabling guests to check-in on th
Results:
Locking company and trial organizer Assa Abloy announced results of the eight-month trial in June 2011, reporting that more than 90% of the 28 guests who participated said they would use the service if it were available on their cell phones. More than half of the users said they saved at least 10 minutes by avoiding lines at the hotel check-in counter.
About eight in 10 trial participants surveyed said they would like NFC applications on the same phone that let them pay for food, drink and other hotel services, according to the Assa Abloy survey. About 80% also agreed they’d like to receive hotel maps, room service menus and gym and spa information downloaded to their phones.
Just under 30% of respondents said they would choose a phone that supports a mobile-key service for their next handset, according to the company.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The agency that runs ticketing for 19 public bus, tram and train operators serving Porto, Portugal’s second largest city, says it has had success–and faced several challenges–with the rollout of its Anda mobile-ticketing app.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, says it continues to see steady growth of its open-loop fare payments service, OMNY, announcing 50 million taps by customers using NFC wallets and bank cards to ride the massive New York City Subway and the city’s buses.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Bilbobus, which operates bus service for the city of Bilbao, in northern Spain’s Basque region, says it launched its recent trial of con
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The Moscow Metro plans to roll out facial-recognition technology at every station by the end of 2021 to enable customers to pay fares, officials say. The project, while delayed, would be the largest of its kind globally.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Stockholm Public Transport, or SL, the city-owned company that oversees major public transport in the city, is the latest agency in Europe to launch open-loop fare collection, offering multimodal rides with a tap of a contactless EMV bank card or NFC device.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – GVB, Amsterdam’s largest public transit operator, says it seeks to replace an aging closed-loop fare card system and go to open-loop and other digital tokens with the planned rollout of its new account-based ticketing system.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Google has announced plans to launch public transit ticketing for more than 80 cities globally in coming weeks from its trip-planning Maps app and also to enable users to buy virtual closed-loop fare cards–starting with the Clipper card in the San Francisco Bay Area–directly from the app. That’s in addition to enabling payments for parking in more than 400 U.S. cities.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – U.S. public transit agencies have been keen to remove cash and paper tickets from their buses and trains and to keep more distance between customers and agency staffers because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now they are getting a new boost from the U.S. federal government in the form of grant funds to enable them to enhance contactless and mobile payments systems, among other measures.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – German transit agency SWB Bus and Bahn plans to fully roll out its contactless EMV fare payments service BONNsmart to its bus and train lines by the end of the first quarter, after launching a pilot last fall, confirmed a spokesman, who added that plans call for eventually expanding the contactless service to payments for parking and such micromobility modes as e-scooters.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Academy Bus, a large private commuter and charter bus company serving the U.S. East Coast, has launched its first mobile-ticketing service with the SilverPass app, enabling commuters to purchase digital tickets with credit cards or employer benefit cards.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, has followed through with plans to offer Android NFC phone users a way to pay fares with the agency’s TAP closed-loop fare card.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight –The CEOs of both Visa and Mastercard in their respective earnings calls yesterday confirmed that contactless payments continued to grow as a share of all face-to-face card payments, with consumer fears of handling cash building on already strong growth trends for the technology.
