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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Far EasTone, one of Taiwan’s three major telcos, officially launched its mobile wallet Tuesday, offering a range of services and technologies as it prepares to compete with the coming of the “Pays” wallets, including Apple Pay, which is expected to launch in Taiwan in the first quarter.

NFC Times Exclusive –  In the first cases of its kind to come to light, two of Taiwan’s largest telcos are planning to support host card emulation in their wallets, as they seek to overcome problems with their joint TSM and to prepare for the coming of OEM Pay to Taiwan, expected in the first quarter of next year, NFC Times has learned.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwan’s second largest mobile operator, Taiwan Mobile, Tuesday launched support for credit and debit card payments on NFC SIM cards–but the telco is using an outside trusted service manager to manage its NFC SIM cards, not the TSM platform it set up with other Taiwanese telcos as part of a joint venture.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight: TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan’s mobile operator TSM joint venture Thursday announced plans to launch NFC service in the second quarter, following a trial within the next few months–though it remains to be seen when the JV will be ready for a full-scale commercial launch.

NFC Times Exclusive: A mobile-payments joint venture in Taiwan led by banking groups has chosen a trusted service manager, which could act as an aggregation service for a number of large and small banks in the country wanting to provision their applications on NFC phones, NFC Times has learned.

NFC Times Exclusive: Taiwan’s NFC joint venture formed last year by the country’s five mobile operators and closed-loop payment scheme EasyCard has chosen a TSM provider for its planned TSM hub, NFC Times has learned.

NFC Times Exclusive: A former general manager of Taipei’s large contactless transit ticketing and closed-loop payment scheme, EasyCard, has been named chairman of an NFC joint venture set up by Taiwan’s five mobile operators and EasyCard Corp., NFC Times has learned.

The NFC joint venture of five Taiwanese mobile operators and the country’s largest fare-collection scheme have confirmed in recent days that it has hired a former sales director for Hewlett-Packard Taiwan and former sales manager at IBM Taiwan as its new CEO, as NFC Times first reported Aug. 5.

NFC Times Exclusive: Taiwan’s planned NFC joint venture is expected to name a former sales director for Hewlett-Packard Taiwan and former sales manager at IBM in Taiwan as its new CEO, NFC Times has learned.

Taiwan’s major mobile operators have been gearing up for their final pilots before NFC commercial launches, which are expected to begin on the island nation by early next year.