Mobitel and Sony to introduce national NFC service in Sri Lanka

The mobile network operator, 49.5% owned by the Sri Lankan government, is to launch a wide range of services using an NFC platform developed by Sony FeliCa.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel
MOBITEL: Sri Lanka’s NFC deployment will begin “in the very near future”

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, the country’s largest mobile services provider, has signed a partnership agreement with Sony Corporation for the introduction of a range of NFC-based services.

The deal will see Mobitel using Sony FeliCa technology, which underpins Japan’s widely deployed Osaifu Keitai mobile wallet service, to develop, deploy and manage a nationwide Trusted Services Manager (TSM) platform. This will be used to support a number of NFC applications, including utility bill payments, transport ticketing, boarding passes, m-money, online payments, student/employee ID card services, access control, mobile ticketing and loyalty points schemes as well as consumer electronics applications.

The deployment and implementation will be carried out in phases and, says Mobitel, will begin “in the very near future”.

“It is a privilege for us to partner Sony, a globally unique organization representing a wide range of businesses,” says Suren J Amarasekera, CEO of Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel. “We also consider it indeed humbling, to be pioneering this initiative in Sri Lanka, at a time when the country is well poised for accelerated growth and economic prosperity.”

Mobitel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. Shareholders include the Sri Lankan government (49.5%) and Global Telecommunications Holdings (44.9%), a subsidiary of Usaha Tegas, the conglomerate owned by Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan.

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