NFC technology proved popular with UK customers

O2, one of the largest mobile network operator in the UK reports about a successful pilot test of its O2 Wallet pilot, Europe’s largest trial of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology on a mobile phone. The trial took place over six months between November 2007 and May 2008. The results show that there is clear consumer demand for such services.

Nearly 90% of the trial participants expressed their content with having Oyster on their mobile phones. In addition about 2/3 also wished to have the Barclaycard Visa payWave contactless payment facility installed on their mobile.

The popularity of the technology was fueled by the growing number of retailers across London accepting payWave for payments of up to £10.

Interestingly , the users turned out to pay much attention to the status. The O2 trial used Nokia 6131 but 85% of the participants were willing to have a choice of handset saying that the make and model would influence their decision to take up NFC services.

The mobile phone wallets in the trial were protected against fraud. In case a handset was lost or stolen it could be blocked. Yet engineers are considering moving the NFC technology to the SIM only and prompting for passwords periodically.