NFC

A mobile payments trial has been started in Czech Republic by Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, Komerční Banka, Citibank Europe, supermarket chain Globus and Visa Europe.

The test program will be trialed with the participation of 200 clients of both Citibank and Telefonica as well as two hundred common clients of Komerční Banka and Telefonica. The payments will be made with Samsung Star 5230 NFC phones at three Globus hypermarkets in Prague as well as a Globus store in the city of Pilsen.

Gartner predicts that over 140 million people will be into mobile payments services this year while mass market adoption of NFC payments is still at least four years away.

The forecast says that more than 141.1 million people will use mobile payments services in 2011, up 38.2% from 102.1 million people a year ago. Over the past year the volume of mobile payments has grown by 75.9% from US$48.9bn in 2010 to $86.1bn in 2011.

Yet, Gartner notes that the mobile payment market is growing more slowly than expected.

A provider of mobile commerce solutions CorFire announced the launch of branded suite of technology products including CorTrust™, its Trusted Service Manager (TSM); CorPay™, a mobile wallet platform; and Cor360™, a set of mobile marketing services that includes location-enabled offers, gifting, and loyalty services.

Isis, a joint venture company conjointly owned by AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, announced the new partnership with Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — all four of the major US payments networks.

"Isis' relationships with all four payment networks means that with Isis-enabled phones and payment terminals in place, merchants and consumers will have ubiquity and freedom of choice when it comes to payment network acceptance," says the company.

US Bank is launching U.S. Bank MasterCard® PayPass™ VITAband® service, a light-weight and durable wristband that combines contactless payment technology with emergency contact and medical information.

ANZ started a limited pilot test of mobile payments via NFC stickers and BlackBerry based micro-SD cards in New Zealand.

The bank is issuing MasterCard PayPass stickers and memory cards to staff to test the technology in retail locations. Earlier ANZ launched its first PayPass-enabled credit cards to consumers.

There are just several terminals that accept contactless payments in New Zealand including Westpac Stadium and Eden Park as well as Hell Pizza, St Pierre's Sushi and Corporate Cabs set to come onstream in July.

VeriFone Systems Inc unveiled its next version of PAYware Mobile Service for global markets. The updated release features VeriFone's sleek mobile payment solution and gateway service and brings international payment standards including NFC and EMV smart card, with PCI-compliant PIN keypad for Chip & PIN transactions, to popular smart phones.

TSYS is partnering with CASSIS International to provide secure mobile payment, loyalty and commerce functionality. CASSIS is a mobile trusted service manager (TSM) for banks, retailers, transit operators and mobile service providers, and is globally certified by Visa and MasterCard.

LG Electronics will launch a swipe payment system for product and service retailers across Europe next year, according to the statement of a senior executive.

"The point-of-sale technology, which will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and will involve NFC or near field communications and cloud computing, is currently in beta testing," Jin-Yong Kim, vice president for business solutions at LG's Home Entertainment division, told Reuters in an interview.

"The plan is to launch it in Europe in 2012," he added.

Apple is considering to make next versions of the iPhone and iPad to include near-field communication technology. It means that the iPhone and iPad users will be able to make payments out in the physical world. The speculation was reported by Bloomberg, who cited Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group as the source of the information. According to the report:

A digital security company Gemalto has been selected by Japanese mobile communications provider KDDI to provide its User Identity Module (UIM) cards and Trusted Service Management (TSM) solution for their Near-Field Communication (NFC) program.
Within the period of May to December 2010 participants of the pilot program will be able to test various types of NFC payment services including mobile payments, transportation services, e-driver’s licenses, e-ticketing, as well as information acquisition from smart posters.

A Visa-enabled iPhone was unveiled by DeviceFidelity this week. DeviceFidelity has partnered with Visa for combining Visa payWave, and In2Pay technology to transform a mobile phone with a microSD memory slot into a mobile contactless payment device.

The result of their collaboration is a "patent-pending protective case that adds mobile contactless capability and works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G."

MasterCard has unveiled its plans to test Gemalto miniature card that is supposed to be inserted into mobile phone SIMs that will let handsets be turned into contactless payments devices. This system represents the first of its kind conforming to the Single Wire Protocol as endorsed by the GSMA.

Bling Nation's sticker-based mobile contactless payments service has been implemented by Community State Bank in Lamar, Colorado. The bank has become the latest among those offering the service to its customers.

Apple seems to be planning the addition of the near field communication technology to a range of its products including iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and iMac as well as a games controller, a printer, DVR, projector, camera, keyboard and a TV remote control. According to a newly published Apple patent application NFC could be used to enable the aforementioned devices to share resources within a connected 'Apple TV Living Room'.