Korea

The 4G LTE G'zOne CA-201L is waterproof, shockproof and dustproof, says Casio, and can be used for mobile payments applications as well as NFC read/write functions. More

Sixteen Korean banks have introduced BankWallet, a prepaid NFC payments service that uses a platform developed by interbank clearing house KFTC. SK Telecom subscribers with an NFC phone will be the first to be able to use the new service and KT customers will be added soon. More

Mobile network operators in the three countries have agreed technical specifications that will enable consumers to make use of NFC payments and other services in both their home country and abroad. More

The Hotel Sky Park Central in Seoul, Korea, has implemented an NFC-based smart guest room solution developed by LG CNS. Guests staying on the hotel's 15th floor are provided with an NFC phone for use... More

KT's MoCa combines payment cards, coupons and offers stored in the cloud with a mobile wallet app that allows consumers to make payments at merchants via traditional barcodes, QR codes or NFC — providing retailers with the flexibility to use their prefered choice of POS hardware to close the "last inch" at the point-of-sale. More

The National Museum of Korea is testing an NFC-based guide service. Visitors can download pictures of exhibits and get further information by reading NFC tags located near each item with an Android smartphone. They can... More

Morpho has shipped 500,000 NFC/LTE SIM cards to KT, Korea's second largest mobile network operator. KT expects that 20m Korean consumers will be equipped with an NFC phone by the end of this year. More

The Japanese carrier, founder of Japan's Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service, has signed a deal with MasterCard that will see its 17m iD mobile credit card holders being able to use a new generation of phones to make payments at MasterCard Paypass merchants in 41 countries as well as at 560,000 Osaifu-Keitai points of sale in Japan. More

"Docomo and KT plan to share the results of their commercial endeavor with global associations and standardization bodies, aiming to promote the realization of a commercial environment for globally compatible NFC services," the Japanese and Korean carriers say. More

The Korean IT services supplier has partnered with carriers KT and LG U+ to enable employers to use NFC mobile phones to replace staff ID badges. Additional services such as payroll integration and payments are planned for the future. More

Hardware manufacturer Duali's Dragon NFC reader has become the first product to achieve NFC Forum certification in Korea. The USB-based desktop device was tested by Korean certification laboratory KTC using equipment from Clear2Pay. The Dragon... More

Some 40,000 Samsung staff based at the electronics giant's headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, are to begin using NFC phones instead of ID badges to gain access to buildings during the second half of 2012,... More

The first international NFC marketing service is to go live on 1 April, allowing customers of NTT Docomo and KT to collect and redeem special offers from NFC posters in both Japan and Korea — and payments and ticketing services as well as the participation of carriers in additional Asian countries are set to follow. More

Smartphone maker LG has unveiled the Optimus LTE Tag, a new smartphone destined for the Korean market. The handset has a 4.3-inch touch screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, and runs Android 2.3. It also has... More

This year's World Expo in Yeosu, Korea is to include NFC-based payments, food ordering, entrance tickets and parking as well as an NFC shopping wall and access to multilingual information on exhibits and transportation. More

Five million Koreans already have an NFC phone, says mobile network operator KT, and payments for bus, subway and taxi fares are the most popular NFC applications. More

NTT Docomo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile have set up the Japan Mobile NFC Consortium with the aim of working together to coordinate the switch from Japan's existing Osaifu-Keitai non-NFC standard mobile payments system to NFC. More

Korea's leading mobile network operators, card networks, phone manufacturers and government agencies have joined forces to provide shoppers in Seoul's busiest shopping district with a wide range of NFC services including payments, couponing, smart posters and digital receipts. More

Telecoms research institute ETRI has established a standard way for Korean merchants to deliver receipts to NFC mobile phones, allowing stores to cut out the need to print paper sales slips. More

Korean mobile network operator KT is adding smart posters to bus stops across Gyeonggi Province. Travellers will be able to use the posters to download real-time bus service information via NFC tags or QR codes. More