The European Commission has given its unconditional approval for the UK’s three largest mobile network operators to form a joint venture company to introduce NFC mobile payments and promotional services in the UK. More
Two thousand customers who purchase a Samsung Galaxy S III are to be the first Czech consumers to take part in a commercial NFC payments service, offered by carrier Telefonica in conjunction with Komerční Banka, Visa Europe and Samsung. More
“There are 8,500 issuers in the US and literally it will take them a lifetime to actually work through negotiations with all these issuers,” Google Wallet’s Robin Dua has told developers during an online Q&A session on its recent move to a cloud-based approach to card provisioning. More
Australian bank Westpac has begun an NFC payments pilot, using Android handsets equipped with a secure element embedded in the SIM that stores a virtual MasterCard debit card... More
1,000 Samsung Galaxy S III NFC phones equipped with a Visa mobile payments app are being distributed to “key stakeholders and decision makers” for the London 2012 Olympics, where all points of sale will be equipped to handle contactless payments — and NFC World has been testing out one of the limited edition devices. More
The iTravel patent covers the use of an NFC-enabled iPhone for buying an airline ticket, checking in baggage and passing through security. More
Israel-based contactless technology developer On Track Innovations has been granted two new patents... More
Orange France is to issue NFC SIMs to all its 27m subscribers, making it the first carrier in Europe to deploy NFC-enabled SIM cards nationally... More
Orange Romania and BRD, part of France-based banking group Société Générale, have launched an NFC payments pilot... More
The launch presentation for Windows Phone 8 shows how Microsoft plans to make its NFC mobile wallet more widely accepted than Google’s, provides details of a forthcoming NFC-enabled Chase payments app and highlights a new deals platform and in-app purchasing technology that charges items to the user’s default payment card. More
Giesecke & Devrient has signed a licensing deal with NXP that will see the smart card and SIM maker adding support for Mifare contactless applications to its range of SIM cards... More
The Russian mobile network operator is providing customers in the city of Yekaterinburg with the ability to store bus, tram and metro tickets on either a mobile phone with built-in NFC or a SIM+antenna add-on that works with standard handsets. More
French smart card IC design house Starchip is sampling a new SIM chip designed for high-end SIM and NFC applications... More
Mobile network operator Orange has conducted an NFC trial at the Stade de France, the country’s national stadium... More
A total of 16m NFC SIMs were shipped globally in 2011, according to the SIMalliance‘s annual review of the global SIM market... More
Italian mobile network operator Wind has begun an internal NFC pilot, in collaboration with Samsung... More
The GSM Association has produced a video introduction to NFC mobile keys that shows how the technology can bring benefits beyond those offered by traditional keys... More
The bank and mobile network operator have partnered for the launch of the country’s first NFC payments service, using BlackBerry NFC phones as well as NFC stickers. More
The search giant is in discussion with mobile network operators around the world, NFC World has learned, with the aim of making its NFC mobile wallet available both internationally and on a wide array of handsets. US carrier partner Sprint is set to be the first, with up to ten additional handsets due to get Google Wallet this year. More
Gemalto has signed a deal with Sony that will see it adding support for Sony’s FeliCa contactless card technology to its new Upteq NFC SIM technology... More