The Smart Card Alliance published a press release this morning with some highlights from the CTST 2008 conference now underway in Orlando - saying that 'the buzz was about mobile payment and near field communication (NFC) on the first day of the joint Smart Card Alliance annual meeting and CTST conference.'   » Continue Reading

The Federal Trade Commission and the Technology Law and Public Policy clinic at the University of Washington Law School have announced they will be holding a one-day Town Hall meeting entitled “Pay on the Go: Consumers and Contactless Payment" to be held July 24 in Seattle to explore emerging uses of contactless payment devices and their implications for consumer protection policy. According to FTC, the Town Hall follows up on its November 2006 forum, “Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade,” which examined the key technological and business developments that will shape consumers’ experiences in the coming decade.   » Continue Reading

Sony Electronics has announced the establishment of an integrator and developer channel program for its FeliCa contactless integrated circuit (IC) chip technology. The FeliCa microchip provides a fast, convenient and secure all-in-one solution platform for multiple applications, including electronic pre-paid transactions, access, interactive signage and membership or loyalty rewards systems. The chip combines processing, storage and communication functions, and can be implemented in a variety of form factors including cards, key chains and mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

John Walko writes for EE Times about the recent European NFC Developers Congress he attended where his sense was that 'the [NFC mobile payments] market could take off in 2009, while others have cautioned that 2010 is more realistic.' He notes that an upcoming report concludes that 'true mobile payments market likely will not emerge until 2010.'

CTST 2008, the largest payment, security and identification conference in the Americas, is being held this year May 12th through 15th at the Orange County Convention Center West, in Orlando, Fla. International industry leaders presenting during the Mobile and NFC Track include: 3G Americas, Aite Group, Authentec, Bay Area Rapid Transit District, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cassis International, Cellular South, Citibank, FireThorn, First Annapolis Consulting, First Data, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon Technologies, Inside Contactless, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, NXP Semiconductors, Sprint Nextel, StoLPaN, Venyon, ViVOtech and Vodafone.   » Continue Reading

SCM Microsystems has announced the SCL3710 NFC reader, a USB dongle which enables a variety of contactless applications using mobile electronic devices. 'The reader can be used to enable contactless transactions for merchants. When inserted into a PC or notebook that is connected to a system such as a Point of Sale (PoS) terminal, vending machine, access terminal or parking meter payment device, the SCL3710 dongle communicates contactlessly with consumers’ NFC-enabled devices to support contactless transactions.'   » Continue Reading

Mobile Candy Dish's Blaze Mobile Wallet is now available for cellular phones on the AT&T and Sprint Nextel networks. Using Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, consumers using their mobile wallet software can simply wave their mobile phones to purchase merchandise. Unlike traditional credit card transactions, NFC transmits a user’s credit card information using radio waves to the credit card terminal and eliminates the need to take out the actual card and swipe.   » Continue Reading

Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Forum blog about what he's learning about business cases for NFC. Dave says that "retail e-payment strategy is, in the long run, mobile payment strategy which is, in the short run, contactless payment strategy."

Jessica Twentyman writes for the UK edition of the Financial Times about the growth in NFC-based payments, writing that "the technology that will enable such transactions has fast been gaining ground, albeit in smartcards rather than phones."

JCB and CASSIS International have announced an agreement to collaborate in a test of NFC over-the-air (OTA) services. The two companies will jointly demonstrate end-to-end secure contactless payment issuance services for NFC mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech has announced that it has secured an equity investment from Citi to develop mobile commerce technologies. Terms were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

paybox and ViVOtech have announced they are partnering "to extend NFC-enabled remote and proximity m-Payments anytime and anywhere, in virtually any e-Commerce or m-Commerce scenario."   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has published a new report, "Contactless Payments and NFC in the United States: Beyond Science Fiction" in which it estimates that, In the absence of increased incentives by card networks, merchant penetration of contactless payment will only increase from 0.5% today to 2.5% by 2014.   » Continue Reading

BART has announced that "a select group of BART riders is helping to launch a first-in-the-nation technological trial that will allow participants to walk up to any BART fare gate with a specially-equipped Sprint wireless phone and pay for their ride by tagging the phone on a reader located on top of the gate."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank, MasterCard Worldwide and Nokia have announced a mobile payments pilot program in Spokane, Washington using new Nokia mobile phones equipped with MasterCard PayPass payment functionality allowing consumers "to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile phone, instead of sliding a card through a magnetic stripe reader, handing it over to the cashier, or fumbling for cash and coins."   » Continue Reading

Monitise has announced the launch of MoniTrust, a platform for Near Field Communication (NFC) payments and ticketing.   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech has announced that its "ViVOnfc infrastructure software for Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile phone payments is being used by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in its first NFC mobile phone payment launch in conjunction with MasterCard at the MasterCard Masters Golf Tournament."   » Continue Reading

NCR in partnership with ViVOtech has announced a suite of contactless payment terminals for the point of sale (POS) that "enable mobile and contactless payment at a variety of customer touch points, including retail checkout, restaurant drive-thru and the diner’s table."   » Continue Reading

Oberthur Card Systems is predicting that "the smart card will become a mainstay of American wallets in 2008. Smart cards are equipped with embedded integrated circuits that enable the processing of information. Oberthur is the largest producer of contactless cards in the U.S. and currently 17 of its top 20 customers, as well as the federal government, have embraced microprocessor chip cards. This will put pressure on the last adopters of the technology who may risk the loss of market share unless they migrate to smart cards in 2008."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'One More Thing Cellphones Could Do: Replace Wallets', Dan Fost writes for USA Today about using mobile phones for payments. "It's relatively easy to make cellphones very secure devices," said Allen Weinberg, managing partner at Glenbrook Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif., financial services and electronic payments consulting firm. He said the encryption is "as good as or better than what you do with an ATM or at-home banking. No one is going to pick up your phone and start moving money around the world. It's just not going to happen."

The GSM Association has announced that, over the next several months, 12 mobile operators will run trials of contactless mobile payment services in Australia, France, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and the U.S. as a precursor to commercial launches.   » Continue Reading

RBC and Visa Canada have announced they are teaming up to be "the first in Canada to pilot a mobile payment service that uses cellphones rather than traditional credit cards for making Visa purchases. This Ontario-based pilot is expected to be completed in 2008, and involve multiple phases including in-lab testing, an RBC staff pilot and a consumer trial." A video is available.   » Continue Reading

Kyocera Wireless and INSIDE Contactless have announced "a global collaboration to integrate INSIDE Contactless’ cutting-edge NFC solution for mobile payments in select prototype Kyocera mobile phones."   » Continue Reading

LogicaCMG has announced "a pilot project at a branch of the Dutch supermarket, C1000 in Molenaarsgraaf, near Rotterdam where 100 customers will be able to pay for their shopping by mobile phone. This six-month pilot is an open innovation initiative led by LogicaCMG and Schuitema, owners of the C1000 supermarket chain, in close cooperation with Rabobank, KPN, NXP Semiconductors and RFID Platform Nederland."   » Continue Reading

Gemalto has announced a partnership with Taiwan’s Far EasTone Telecommunications Ltd. to implement "Asia’s first mobile contactless SIM-based NFC (Near Field Communications) trial. The trial, which will start in November and be rolled out in phases, is part of the GSM Association’s 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative which seeks to define a common global approach to using NFC technology to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems."   » Continue Reading

Joanna Pachner writes for Canada's Globe and Mail about contactless payments - saying that "perhaps the real breakthrough will happen with the next generation of contactless technology, already growing fast in Asia: mobile commerce, employing a new generation of cellphones equipped with near-field communication (NFC) chips."

The Smart Card Alliance has published a new white paper titled "Mobile Payments: Leveraging NFC and the Contactless Financial Payments Infrastructure" that concludes that "proximity mobile payment – because it leverages the well-established infrastructure of the financial payments industry, and because it is based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and the ISO/IEC 14443 standard – will become the mobile payment technology of choice for consumers using mobile phones for retail payment transactions in the United States."   » Continue Reading

Unstung reports on NFC-based mobile payments efforts in Austria being driven by Mobilkom Austria AG. Currently, the service uses a hybrid of NFC and SMS to complete the purchase - but that's planned to change in the next phase of the service.

A new ABI Research study titled "Near Field Communication Semiconductors" concludes that "Near Field Communications (NFC), and its leading application, contactless payment, offer financial institutions a way to move small transactions out of the cash economy and into profitable credit-based systems. For consumers who hate to wait, they offer faster, easier checkout, just by waving a wireless phone near a point-of-sale reader. But the development of the market for the chipsets that underpin the technology has been slow. The main reason for this, according to ABI Research senior analyst Douglas McEuen, is security: the financial institutions and industry standards-setting bodies around the world can't yet agree on the appropriate levels and methods of data protection."   » Continue Reading

Gemalto and NXP Semiconductors have announced they are collaborating on "SIM-enabled Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions based on the Single Wire Protocol (SWP). Both companies will together define and develop SIM products for SWP-based solutions to ensure interoperability with MIFARE technology as well as other widely deployed contactless protocols. This agreement will enable the industry to rapidly address the growing demand for NFC-based applications among telecom operators, service providers and consumers."   » Continue Reading

Aneace Haddad blogs about his company's mobile payment solution using NFC - and includes a video demonstrating how it works. "Rather than simply doing a basic, boring payment transaction, the demo shows the payment terminal also delivering a targeted promotion to the customer, based on criteria set by the merchant. Enter the amount on the POS terminal, tap the phone and the payment receipt is printed, which now includes an offer that says “Buy one value meal, get a free dessert”."

As announced last week, Visa and Wells Fargo are testing mobile NFC-based payments. Mary Catherine O'Connor writes for RFID Journal about the testing and provides more specifics on the test plans.

Wells Fargo and Visa USA have announced the launch of an "extensive mobile pilot to test consumer mobile payments and services. The pilot has three phases to help Wells Fargo and Visa better understand how consumers will use mobile payment and service options on mobile devices equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology."   » Continue Reading

Robert L. Mitchell writes for Computerworld about contactless payments - saying "there's just one problem: Only a tiny percentage of consumers have contactless cards today, and most retailers remain on the sidelines." He goes on: "what ultimately may drive acceptance of contactless technology with users, and ultimately merchants, is its integration with mobile phones."

Jay Loomis reports for the Westchester County, NY Journal News about MasterCard's recent investor day presentation of some of MasterCard's new technology initiatives. "MasterCard currently has more than 100 new products under development. Many are focused on new ways for credit cards, debit cards or electronic payments to replace cash and checks in fast growing areas of the economy such as health care."

Card Technology reports on comments by Bank of America's John Suchanec regarding the bank's recent trial of contactless mobile phone-based payments - saying the results "failed to inspire".

Emma Smith writes for the London Sunday Times about mobile payments - writing mostly about mobile phones equipped for contactless payments at POS - saying that "the ability for mobile phones to be used as payment devices has long been seen as the holy grail for both phone companies and banks."

In its latest analysis of the Near Field Communication market titled "Near Field Communications (NFC): Leveraging Contactless for Mobile Payments, Content and Access", ABI Research forecasts that by 2012, some 292 million handsets – just over 20 percent of the global mobile handset market – will ship with built in NFC capabilities. ABI says that "2007 will be critical for NFC technology as key standards and operator trials complete the foundations for the first real deployments." Last September, ABI - in a reduced forecast made at that time - forecast that by 2011 some 450 million NFC-equipped handsets would be shipped that year representing about 30% of the total shipments that year.   » Continue Reading

At the CTIA show this week, Kyocera Wireless says it will be demonstrating several solutions that "deliver on the promise of next-generation wireless technologies to enable a variety of mobile consumer applications. Kyocera Wireless and Visa International are demonstrating mobile payments utilizing NFC technology, essentially turning a mobile phone into a Visa payment solution using the Visa mobile platform."   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech has partnered with Mobile Candy Dish to "provide consumers a complete end-to-end mobile commerce platform" by combining ViVOwallet OTA and NFC mobile payment software and the Mobile Candy Dish Blaze suite of mobile services. With the combined offering, the two companies say "consumers can use their mobile phone to get movie information and pay for tickets using any form of credit, debit or gift card, as well as to redeem theater tickets electronically without any delays at the venue by using the ViVOtech contactless readers."   » Continue Reading

Cellular South and Kyocera Wireless Corp. (KWC) have announced a multi-city consumer trial of Wireless Wallet technology beginning in May in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss.   » Continue Reading

Jack Shandle writes for Wireless Net DesignLine about near-field communications (NFC) technology - saying that the "mobile-phone-based financial payment infrastructure being planned around Near Field Communications (NFC) technology will make it a "must have" technology in future wireless products."

The GSM Association has announced more information about its initiative to help facilitate the worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at point of sale. According to the association, "the 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative is a natural progression for the industry, following the GSMA's program - announced last year - to define a common global approach to enabling Near Field Communications (NFC), the technology used to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems. By embedding mobile contactless services, such as credit and debit payments, in the SIM card the mobile industry will extend the role of mobile phones in customers' everyday lives."   » Continue Reading

The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association focused on advancing the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, has released a white paper titled "Near Field Communication and the NFC Forum: The Keys to Truly Interoperable Communications" (PDF) that highlights the "capabilities of NFC technology and its potential to transform consumers’ everyday lives."   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech has announced the f"irst deployment of an end-to-end NFC payment and promotion infrastructure software in Taiwan as part of a joint initiative by MasterCard, Taipei Fubon Bank and Taiwan Mobile. The three companies are launching a broad NFC mobile phone payment pilot program based on ViVOtech technologies in the region."   » Continue Reading

HSBC Credit Card Services has announced it has launched a mobile phone payments pilot based on Near Field Communications technology in partnership with MasterCard and ViVOtech.   » Continue Reading

Contacless News reports on Store Logistics and Payment with NFC (StoLPaN), a consortium co-funded by the European Commission and Information Society Technologies.

Bank of America has chosen Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) to provide Over The Air personalization services as part of a trial to test radio frequency contactless payment companion devices.   » Continue Reading

INSIDE Contactless has unveiled its consumer electronics vision for contactless technology in the NFC Forum at the Consumer Electronics Show.   » Continue Reading

Dave Birch blogs about a "medium term vision for retail payments." In Dave's vision, "the retail POS shrinks to a button on the shop counter, whereas all the "smarts" migrate into the mobile." We can speculate about just what that "medium term" timeframe for Dave's vision actually is - and what the downstream implications might be for the POS equipment vendors.

Dave Birch interviews Neil Poundall, Head of Advanced Data & Enablers at the UK's O2, about "the increasing marketplace momentum behind mobile payments from the mobile operator's perspective and the imminent arrival of NFC handsets."

Jeana Wong reports from Singapore for Channel NewsAsia about Near Field Communication - saying "it can allow consumers, for example, to receive discount coupons via mobile phones in real-time when they pass by their favourite retail store. However, market watchers say coming up with a feasible business model remains a key challenge."

The BBC reports on how mobile operators are working to make mobile phones equipped with NFC become smart wallets. "A mobile equipped with NFC technology could, for example, buy a concert ticket over the phone which would then hold those details, together with the details of the phone user, on the tag inside the handset."

The two creators of Near Field Communication technology, NXP Semiconductors and Sony Corporation, have announced plans to establish by mid-year 2007 a new joint venture (JV) that will drive global adoption of contactless smart card applications in mobile phones. According to the two companies, "the anticipated JV will plan, develop, produce and market a secure chip that will include both MIFARE and FeliCa operating systems and applications, as well as other contactless card operating systems and applications."   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced the launch of a new mobile payment coupons and rewards pilot at its California headquarters. According to Visa, "following the successful completion of the industry's first large-scale U.S. mobile payment trial at Philips Arena in Atlanta earlier this year, Visa is now testing the delivery of mobile payment coupons and rewards via text message, graphic and bar code images direct to consumers' mobile devices." Visa says a recent online survey it conducted found that 61 percent of respondents between the ages of 25 and 34 are interested in making purchases using their mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

IBM has been awarded US patent number 7,128,274 titled "Secure credit card with near field communications" (PDF). The patent was filed by inventors Edward E. Kelley and Franco Motika.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard has announced that, in partnership with Nokia and 7-Eleven, it is now conducting a consumer trial in Dallas, Texas, of Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled mobile phones with MasterCard PayPass capability.   » Continue Reading

Digital Transactions reports on Obopay's launch with Amp'd Mobile earlier this week and last week's agreement with Vivotech to connect to contactless payments at the point of sale. According to the article, Obopay "is promoting signups now with an offer of $5 for each account as well as $5 for each account referred by current users. Each Obopay accountholder receives a MasterCard debit card linked to the funds in his account and issued by First Premier Bank, allowing users to get cash from ATMs and spend it in stores."

MasterCard, Citi, and Cingular have launched a web site devoted to the New York City Mobile Trial of near field communication (NFC) technology at MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations - including some specially equipped NYC Subway turnstiles.

Sean Hargrave writes for the UK's The Guardian about the deployment of NFC-equipped mobile phones for payments in the UK. Hargrave quotes Alan Wright, head of mobile strategy at Motorola, who "points out that many of the new handsets coming on to the market within 12 to 18 months will be NFC-enabled. From then, it should become commonplace to pay for low value goods and services on a mobile phone - beginning with tickets."

Martyn Williams provides an update for InfoWorld on NTT DoCoMo's DCMX payment service in Japan - reporting that it has enrolled over 860,000 people to the service. "The system relies on a non-contact smart card platform developed by Sony Corp. called Felica. Payment is made by placing the phone close to a reader/writer terminal in participating stores. There are already around 60,000 such terminals in place and NTT DoCoMo expects this to more than double by April 2007."

Dan Balaban writes for Card Technology about near field communications technology for mobile payments - and asks whether this time the mobile network operators and financial institutions can find enough common ground to work together - saying "as the NFC payment pilots continue to launch and thoughts turn to possible rollouts, the oft- debated question of “who owns the customer” continues to rear up."

JCB, in cooperation with CCV Holland B.V., Gemalto, KPN, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, PaySquare, and ViVOtech, has announced that the launch of Mobile J/Speedy, a Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment pilot project in Amsterdam. Following initial trials in September, the pilot service is now being rolled out to a broader group of JCB's customers. The project marks Europe's first contactless international credit payment scheme using a mobile phone with an NFC chip.   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech and Obopay have announced a partnership to "allow Obopay users to access the ViVOwallet to conveniently and securely pay for retail goods by waving their near field communications (NFC) mobile devices in front of the more than 160,000 retail outlets equipped with a ViVOtech point-of-sale device."   » Continue Reading

Peter Judge writes for the UK's TechWorld about near field communications (NFC) technology - reporting that some industry analysts believe that the mobile operators are slowing down the deployment of NFC for payment applications by insisting they have to recoup the cost from the contactless payment services NFC could enable.

David Carey reports for EE Times on how a "near-field communication device turns a Nokia cell phone into a practical tool in commercial and industrial settings for tracking assets, transmitting small data files or even auto-launching various phone-based tasks or requests" - and that "NFC technology has the ability to support what may be the most compelling application of all: a wallet in your handset."

ABI Research has announced it has adjusted its forecast for Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled cellular phones downwards to 450 million units in 2011 - which would represent about 30% of handsets shipped worldwide in that year - due to the "continuing challenges surrounding the contactless payments business model for mobile operators."   » Continue Reading

Atlanta Spirit, Chase, Cingular, Nokia, NXP, Visa USA and ViVOtech have announced the completion of the first North American Near Field Communication (NFC) trial for mobile phones, including contactless payments and content downloads at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.   » Continue Reading

Michael Fitzgerald writes for Technology Review about near field communication (NFC) technology and how NFC can enable mobile phones to become like mobile wallets - with the added ability to swap addresses and share photos between two NFC-equipped phones (or other devices). Industry forecasters predict that by 2010 half of all new mobile phones will be NFC-equipped.

Card Technology writes about Turkey's Garanti Bank and bank management's thoughts on some of the issues associated with contactless/NFC payment deployment in mobile phones. In particular, concerns about using a shared SIM approach - with the mobile network operator. “At end the day, who owns the customer relationship? Who’s the customer going to call if something goes wrong?” Just last month, Garanti Bank became MasterCard's PayPass launch bank in Europe.

The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association advancing the use of near field communication (NFC) technology, has announced the publication of its first four specifications. The specifications are available to the public for download at no charge from the NFC Forum Web site, www.nfc-forum.org.   » Continue Reading

David Haskin writes for TechWeb about six mobile innovations that he says "will change your life" - including "Pay By Phone". He points, in particular, to the progress being made with mobile payments in Japan by NTT DoCoMo.

Karen Dearne reports for Australian IT on the joint venture announced last week by Nokia and smartcard supplier Giesecke and Devrient "that aims to offer consumer applications, such as credit cards and public transport tickets, wirelessly downloaded from the internet to NFC-capable devices."

Wireless Design & Development Asia reports on China's NFC mobile payment trial in Xiamen being sponsored by Nokia, China Fujian Mobile Communications, Xiamen Branch, Xiamen E-Tong Card Co. and Philips. "The consumers will use the NFC enabled Nokia 3220 mobile phones to make mobile payment through any point-of-sales covered by Xiamen E-Tong Card, including locations such as on the public transportation buses, ferry boats or at restaurants, movie theaters in Xiamen City."

Giesecke & Devrient and Nokia have announced an agreement to form a joint venture to provide services to the NFC ecosystem by enabling consumer applications, such as credit cards or transport tickets, to be securely and easily downloaded over-the-air to NFC enabled mobile devices.   » Continue Reading

In an article on BillingWorld.com titled "Smart Phones Could Drive New Telecom Business Model", author Susana Schwartz writes about the potential for mobile payments and challenges mobile operators to realize that the time has come for them to "determine what role they intend to play, and how to drive merchants and content providers to their customers and networks." According to Schwartz, "the killer app could be the RFID-driven capabilities fostered by the NFC chips, which will allow users to quickly drill down into financial transactions over their phones through machine-to-machine interaction between the phone and banking systems."

VingCard has introduced “Signature RFID by VingCard,” a contact-less electronic-locking system for hotels that uses an open-platform RFID lock that is compatible with all the main RFID ISO standards (ISO 14.443 A-MIFARE, ISO 14.443 B, ISO 15.693) and also with the new Near Field Communication (NFC) cell phone technology platform.   » Continue Reading

Intel, Microsoft, and Japan's Edy electronic money service promoter bitWallet Inc. have announced that they will "strengthen their ties in a bid to expand e-services using Sony Corp.'s contactless IC card technology" known as FeliCa.   » Continue Reading

JCB has announced it s working together with "seven world-class players in payment systems, terminals, NFC and mobile technology" to launch a pilot project using an NFC contactless credit payment scheme this autumn in Amsterdam.   » Continue Reading