NFC news in brief

One million NFC TOM (Tag on Metal) phone stickers have been ordered from Identive for "a banking and payment program in Africa", the company has announced. All the stickers will be shipped during the current quarter.

MasterCard has added NBS Technologies' Xpressi Trusted Service Manager (TSM) platform to its list of approved products. Earlier this month, NBS announced that the platform has been chosen by an unnamed Turkish customer.

NFC-on-microSD specialist DeviceFidelity has been granted patent number ZL200880107195.2 in China, bringing the company's portfolio up to a total of 40 patents relating to NFC and security technologies. The newly-issued patent covers an NFC based mobile wallet implementation that uses a microSD-based secure element and credentials issued by multiple enterprises.

Identive has announced it has won an order for three million NFC tags from an unnamed retailer. The NFC Forum Type 2 tags "will be used for a mobile retail application in France", says Identive. 800,000 of the tags will be shipped this quarter.

Five hundred bus stops in the centre of Madrid have been equipped with NFC tags, allowing passengers to access arrival times and tourist information with their NFC phones. The tags form part of a new "Smart Madrid" project and have been supplied by Connecthings.

Unattended payments specialist USA Technologies (USAT) has added two new POS devices to its range. Both the ePort G9 and the ePort G10 support NFC payments and are "designed to bring greater functionality and value to business operators as they optimize their cashless payment platforms to develop new sales opportunities and greater operational efficiencies".

Public transportation users in the French city of Strasbourg are being invited by local transit operator CTS to take part in an NFC ticketing pilot. The trial will begin in June 2013.

"NFC handsets have reached a tipping point this year and global volumes will surge an impressive 138% in 2013", according to a new forecast by Strategy Analytics. "Most new LTE phones will launch with NFC in the future," the analysts say.

RFID manufacturer Hong Kong RFID has launched an online NFC tag shop, nfc-shop.net. The store offers labels, waterproof wristbands, key fobs and a variety of stickers.

China UnionPay executive vice president Hongfeng Chai has demonstrated the payments network's Quick Pass contactless payments service in use on an Intel-powered NFC smartphone at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. The two companies are now working together to develop mobile payments services that make use of both NFC and Intel's Identity Protection Technology.

PetHub has added NFC to its pet ID tags which are also equipped with a QR code, web address and 24-hour phone number. The tags store a link to information about the pet, such as emergency contact number, medication details, microchip number and insurance status.

Prepaid Financial Services has partnered with Carta Worldwide to develop and deliver NFC and mobile payment solutions to corporate clients. "Innovation is the key driver behind the selection of Carta's NFC payments technology extensions, as the Carta platform is already market ready with respect to certain capabilities that other technology providers are just starting to think about," says PFS CEO Noel Moran.

Mumbai-based JusTap! has announced JusPocket, an NFC couponing platform that allows brands to run multiple coupon and deal campaigns in real time. JusPocket can be integrated into POS systems or accessed from a web browser, the company says.

New Delhi-based mobile wallet solutions provider xpWallet has announced a partnership with Toronto-based NFC specialist TapMeTags. As well as collaborating on mobile payment products, the two companies will work together on anti-fraud systems for NFC devices and tags.

UL is to become the first laboratory to test mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) devices for certification under the Visa Ready Partner Program. "We are looking forward to guiding our customers through this new program that will greatly assist vendors in understanding their compliance requirements, ensuring their mPOS devices are fully approved and adaptable into the market," says UL's Jean-Luc Khaou.

RFID reader manufacturer SkyeTek has launched its first NFC product. The Gemini NFC and Mifare reader module is a "low-cost and ultra-low power reader/writer module" aimed at the access control, brand loyalty and mobile wallet markets.

Aconite's Mobile Application Manager has been selected by "a major European processor" to provide "a low-cost, fast-track enhancement of their existing authorization systems to support the broad range of EMV scripts needed to manage EMV applications on a mobile NFC handset". Aconite's solution will support counter resets, passcode changes and other scripts required to fully implement EMV in a mobile environment, the company says.

Testing specialist Fime has integrated the MasterCard Terminal Integration Process (M-TIP) questionnaire into its Savvi test tool, enabling it to validate that NFC payment terminals are compliant with MasterCard's latest PayPass terminal specification. "The latest requirements from MasterCard support advancements in mobile payments, including features such as PIN entry via a mobile device to authorise a transaction," says Fime.

NFC specialist Nexperts has introduced an NFC mobile wallet that comes with MasterCard Mobile PayPass certification. "The support of Mobile PayPass in our wallet framework eases significantly the time to market for MNOs and banks to issue advanced contactless solutions" says CEO Kurt Schmid.

UL Transaction Security is to develop and run a Mifare Test Centre, offering functional certification services for Mifare contactless cards and Mifare applications running on mobile devices. "The UL Mifare Test Center will guarantee interoperability across third party Mifare implementations in an increasingly global multi-vendor environment," the company says.