Archive for November 2008

A new payments service from Bling Nation offers local banks the chance to provide a low-cost closed-loop payments system within their local community. Smart stickers attached to customers' mobile phones and low-cost 'BlingTag' readers are at the heart of the system and NFC-based services will be added once handsets become widely available. More

Five hundred Nokia NFC phones were issued to exhibitors by event registration specialists ITN International at last week's Greenbuild 2008. A host of advanced features such as the over-the-air provision of promotional information, special invitation tickets and event-based social networking are to be added soon... More

Tourists visiting ski resorts in the Italian Dolomites this winter will be provided with NFC-enabled phones for use in a range of applications as part of the Stolpan consortium's first field trial. Phones and terminals from multiple suppliers will be used. More

The SIM card manufacturers' association has reacted to the GSMA's call for mass market NFC-enabled handset availability by creating a dedicated working group aimed at promoting the advantages of putting the SIM at the centre of an NFC system. More

Mobile operator O2 has signed a deal which will see eleven major music venues across the UK rebranded as an 'O2 Academy'. O2 will offer customers a series of benefits such as priority access to tickets and will use the venues to test a range of NFC-based services. More

The Parrot Specchio incorporates an Innovision NFC tag, allowing photographs to be transferred quickly and easily from an NFC phone directly to the digital frame. More

OPINION: Purists maintain that simply attaching a contactless sticker to a mobile phone isn't really NFC. And, on one level, they would be right. More

Mifare4Mobile specifications will be released within months, making it easier for Mifare-based transit ticketing and other applications to be provided via a ticket holder's mobile phone.  More

The NFC Forum has put out a call for entries for this year's Global Competition, with cash prizes on offer for the winners. It has also produced a new white paper, elected a new chairman and vice chairman and held a press and members briefing at Cartes — where it announced that a certification mark is due out next year as part of a new compliance programme... More

The Philippines' largest mobile operator has started a small scale NFC trial using equipment that meets the latest GSMA technical specifications. More

The mobile industry association has finalised its device requirements for NFC handsets and called on manufacturers to put phones incorporating the Single Wire Protocol interface into consumers' hands by the middle of next year. More

The airline has provided each of its most frequent domestic travellers with contactless stickers from OTI that can be attached to the back of their mobile phone and act as a permanent and reusable boarding pass. More

Anyone who expected to visit Cartes 2008 and find just the odd NFC application hidden somewhere round the back of a small stand lost in the outer reaches of the exhibition hall was in for quite a surprise — Near Field Communications World spotted forty companies talking NFC at this year's event... More

Today Near Field Communications World is pleased to welcome readers of Using RFID, which has been acquired by SJB Research... More

The new Mobile MasterCard PayPass solution makes it much easier for MasterCard member banks to offer NFC-based payment services to their cardholders More

It's taken a while, but near field communication does now seem to be firmly on the road to becoming an accepted, mass-market technology. More

After a successful trial involving NFC-based retail and transit payments, Malaysia's Maxis Communications and Maybank are reported to be planning a commercial launch in January 2009 More

A one year NFC pilot is to take place in Turkey from January 2009, coordinated by the national card payments clearing centre BKM. Nine banks and two mobile operators are reported to have already signed up to take part... More