Applications
March 11th, 2010
GlobalPlatform sets out branding guidelines for multi-application mobile wallets
The standards body's new Contactless Services technical document sets out how a card issuer's brand identity will be maintained within a consumer's mobile wallet. More
March 10th, 2010
China Mobile confirms purchase of stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank
China Mobile has agreed to pay $5.8 billion for a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank), making the mobile network operator the second largest shareholder in the bank. Shareholders in China Mobile... More
March 8th, 2010
Blackboard adds NFC and contactless support to campus card system
Blackboard, which supplies campus card solutions to hundreds of higher education institutes, has launched a new contactless and NFC-compatible version of its Blackboard Transact card system, based on Sony FeliCa contactless technology. Release 3.6 is... More
March 8th, 2010
Belgian group reports on two year NFC voucher study
The results of a two year project investigating the potential of near field communication to replace meal vouchers, discounts coupons and gift vouchers have been released. More
March 4th, 2010
Objecs adds NFC to headstones
US firm Objecs has launched a new range of wireless-enabled memorial products designed to enable detailed information about the deceased to be stored in an NFC tag attached to a gravestone. Anyone with an NFC... More
March 4th, 2010
Barclays increases contactless transaction limit by 50%
Barclays Bank has increased the transaction limit for contactless cards from £10 to £15. "Contactless technology is undoubtedly the future of payments and we are seeing it grow hugely in popularity," says Brian Cunnington, head... More
March 4th, 2010
EnStream begins Zoompass mobile payments sticker trial
EnStream, the joint venture between Canada's three leading mobile operators which operates the Zoompass mobile wallet service, has begun its first mobile contactless sticker trial. Launched by Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus in June 2009,... More
March 4th, 2010
Video shows how China Mobile’s RF SIM technology works at the point-of-sale
A reporter from Chinese IT portal Zol.com has produced a video report on China Mobile's new RF SIM-based mobile payments service which shows the technology in action at a local supermarket. The video clearly demonstrates... More
February 26th, 2010
China Mobile to buy stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank?
Bloomberg reports that China Mobile may be about to buy a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank at a cost of 40bn yuan (about $5.9bn). The move, if confirmed, would give China Mobile's new... More
February 22nd, 2010
Visa appoints senior GSMA executive to head its move to mobile
Visa Inc has appointed Bill Gajda as its new head of mobile. Gajda will join Visa from the GSMA, where he is currently the mobile association's chief commercial officer, responsible for strategic initiatives including mobile... More
February 22nd, 2010
SK Telekom, Hana Financial to launch mobile contactless service in March
Hana Card, the Korean credit card issuer in which SK Telekom took a 49% stake in December, has announced it is to launch its new mobile proximity service in mid-March. "Our goal is securing 400,000-500,000... More
February 19th, 2010
Vivotech picks Zapa for European TSM services
Vivotech has selected Zapa Technology as its preferred partner for managed Trusted Service Manager (TSM) services in Europe. "Zapa Technology has focused on executing commercial NFC programs," says John Nagle, the company's CEO. "Having Vivotech... More
February 19th, 2010
China Unicom to launch world’s first commercial single wire protocol based NFC service
The mobile operator has signed up five Chinese banks and five transport operators for the commercial launch of its NFC service, scheduled to take place during the second quarter of 2010. More
February 17th, 2010
Canadian mobile operators ‘plan to introduce NFC or contactless handsets within the year’
EnStream, the joint venture between Canada's three leading mobile operators which operates the Zoompass mobile wallet service, aims to offer NFC or contactless enabled handsets to customers within the year, the company has told NFC... More
February 17th, 2010
PhoobyBook introduces TouchTwits for NFC-based social networking
Italian start-up FreeAccess has developed a new service that enables users to send each other Twitter-like NFC-based short messages by simply tapping their NFC handset over a friend's phone. TouchTwits are part of a new... More
February 17th, 2010
Cash still accounts for 78% of European payments
Cash payments accounted for 78% of Europe's 388 billion retail payment transactions in 2008, according to a new study by Retail Banking Research (RBR), and the cost of distributing, managing, handling, processing and recycling cash... More
February 17th, 2010
MoLo launches mobile rewards programme in San Diego and Toronto
MoLo Rewards has launched its mobile rewards programme in the cities of San Diego and Toronto. First announced at DemoFall in September 2009, the service uses contactless stickers attached to users' mobile phones to identify... More
February 16th, 2010
Parkeur uses NFC to ease the pain of parking in busy urban areas
A team from French science engineering graduate school Polytech'Marseille has been shortlisted in the 2010 Simagine awards for an NFC application designed to ease the pain of parking in busy urban areas. The Parkeur application... More
February 16th, 2010
Gemalto adds mobile coupons to its NFC products
Gemalto has announced a partnership with leading coupon specialist HighCo that will see the company adding mobile coupons to its NFC Trusted Service Manager (TSM) offering. Using an application in the mobile phone, users will... More
February 16th, 2010
Over 1bn consumers to use mobile banking services by 2015
The global customer base for mobile banking will reach 1.1bn by the year 2015, according to a new report from Global Industry Analysts. Convenience of mobile banking operations and the need to lower transactional costs... More
