NFC Italy

Mobile NFC in 2008 a Great Success!

September 12, 2008 – 10:35 am
Thank you to all of our speakers and partners at Mobile NFC 2008. The event was a great success, and enjoyed a fantastic buzz on site, due to the o2 NFC trial results released on the same day. With 89% of o2's trial participants saying that they would use their phone as an Oyster card, if given the chance to continue, only handset range, security, and commercial modelling remain in the way of consumer acceptance of NFC leading up to the 2012 London Olympics. (Incidentally, Visa mentioned at the conference that, as a key sponsor at the games, it hopes to make the entire Olympic village cashless one to watch at Mobile NFC 2009!) NFC is clearly enjoying being the media darling of the moment, and the filming by [Thomson] Reuters news [flv:/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/mobile-nfc-uk.flv 480 368] at the conference only solidified the press courtship of this new and enticing end-user product. Furthermore, our Play and Display ...

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Virgin Mobile USA launches its first Helio handset

September 11, 2008 – 10:10 am
After acquiring Helio only three weeks ago, Virgin Mobile USA has launched its first device from its new subsidiary: an EV-DO handset by Personal Communication Devices, LLC -- a spinoff of UTStarcom -- called the Shuttle. Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Helio has passed hands several times in the last year. Earthlink and SK Telecom were joint founders of the service, but Earthlink later backed away from the project, placing the financial burden on SKT. Earlier this year, Virgin Mobile, a similarly youth-oriented MVNO that leases bandwidth from Sprint PCS, expressed interest in acquiring the brand. The Shuttle will be Virgin Mobile's first device supporting 3G location-based functions, and is therefore being likened to Helio and the company's typical focus on mobile data features through its partnerships with Facebook, Yahoo, and YouTube. However, it will not be a Helio-branded device. At least for now, Helio remains outwardly autonomous, maintaining its blue and white ...

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Panel: Mobile payments misunderstood in U.S.

September 11, 2008 – 8:47 am
SAN FRANCISCO - The media are responsible, in part, for the lack of greater adoption of mobile payment systems in the United States, a panel of payment leaders said here Thursday at the fall 2008 CTIA. "I think the media, because they don't understand the technology, and consumers, because they don't understand the technology, have created a hysteria around this," said Barry McCarthy, president of Mobile Solutions for First Data. "I think it's entirely unfounded." Contactless payment systems use near field communication (NFC), an extension of the ISO 14443 proximity-card standard that allows mobile devices to use short-range high-frequency wireless communication between devices. A consumer might, for example, hold an NFC-enabled mobile device near an NFC-enabled point of sale (POS) to wirelessly debit a person's bank account to complete a sales transaction. Or a person might hold an NFC-enabled mobile device near a smart tag embedded in a poster to gain additional ...

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Telecom Italia: MASTERCARD PAYMENTS FROM CELLULARS TO BEGIN

September 11, 2008 – 8:45 am
Rome - Telecom Italia and MasterCard have subscribed to a strategic collaboration agreement for the joint development of roaming payment services to offer their clients the possibility of making all of their main transactions on a payment card directly from their own cellular phone. The agreement has the goal of the possibility of delivering mobile payment services in collaboration with banks and credit card companies that want to take part in the program to widen the services offered to their clients. The development plan of the agreement includes both the payment services that use Sim card software, and contactless PayPass® services with a so called Near Field Communication technology (NFC). Starting with the delivery of an text message, the client will be able to recharge their prepaid payment cards, to transfer money to their checking accounts or prepaid card, pay phone bills, or recharge their TIM cards. From the MasterCard PayPass- the ...

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UK consumers want NFC on their mobiles

September 2, 2008 – 1:14 pm
The prospect of using your mobile phone to make purchases or pay for travel took a step forward today with the results from Europe’s largest trial of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology on a mobile phone revealing clear consumer demand for such services. Nine out of ten trialists were happy using NFC technology on a mobile phone and 78% said they would be interested in using contactless services if available. Convenience, ease-of-use and the status of having such an innovative device were seen as the main benefits. Interest in having Oyster on their mobile phones was particularly strong with 89% of trialists saying they were interested in taking this up.  Over two-thirds of trialists also said that they would be interested in having the Barclaycard Visa payWave feature on their mobile in the future. The O2 Wallet trial took place over six months between November 2007 and May 2008 and involved 500 trialists.  ...

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London NFC trial shows customers want contactless m-payments

September 2, 2008 – 8:54 am
A pilot scheme that allows Londoners to use their mobile phones to pay for tube journeys and make small value purchases has been hailed as a success, with the majority of participants saying they are happy using the contactless system. The six month O2 Wallet trial - described as Europe's largest trial of NFC technology on a mobile phone - was run by the phone network in partnership with Transport for London (TfL), handset manufacturer Nokia, card issuer Visa and TranSys, the consortium which currently runs the Oyster card system. UK consultancy outfit Consult Hyperion also worked on the scheme and provided consulting and development services to O2, including the Blueroom access application. The consortium gave 500 Londoners NFC-enabled handsets that can be swiped across Oyster card readers in London Underground stations and in buses. Barclaycard also credited 225 of the 500 phones with £200 worth of non-reloadable funds for making low value contactless ...

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OPERATORS TO DEFINE REQUIREMENTS FOR NFC HANDSETS

June 30, 2008 – 11:23 pm
30th June 2008, London:  This summer, the GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, plans to release a preliminary set of minimum requirements for handsets containing Near Field Communications (NFC) chipsets.  Developed by mobile operators supporting the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, the requirements will help handset manufacturers to develop NFC-enabled phones that are compatible with operators’ planned mobile NFC services and quickly realise economies of scale. Forty-four mobile operators from across the world support the Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. The requirements will build upon the standardisation work completed by ETSI[1], which has selected the Single Wire Protocol to provide the interface between the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)2, recommended by the GSMA as the Secure Element for NFC3 applications, and the embedded NFC chipset within the handset. The NFC chip can communicate with existing contactless readers to deliver a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services, such as credit and debit ...

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Tyfone to Present to NFC and International Micropayments Forum

June 22, 2008 – 4:26 pm
PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tyfone, a global provider of mobile financial services infrastructure and fully-integrated mobile payments capabilities, today announced that Prabhakar Tadepalli, Tyfone’s Managing Director – APAC, has been invited to present to the NFC and International Micropayments Forum at its upcoming meeting in Taipei, Taiwan on June 24, 2008. Tadepalli will discuss Tyfone’s perspectives on the use cases and market drivers affecting the mobile payments landscape globally. Tyfone is a co-sponsor of the event. Chunghwa Telecom, the GBDe and APSCA will play host to the second meeting of Asia’s newly formed group tasked with exploring the business models, standards issues, market forces and various technology solutions surrounding the practical implementation of NFC-based (Near-Field Communications) international micropayments. The forum is comprised of leading mobile operators, together with banks, transport operators, technology vendors and payment processors. Tadepalli is a seasoned technology executive with responsibility for all product and business development aspects of Tyfone ...

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Mobile NFC 2008 in London next September

June 13, 2008 – 9:42 am
  Following the resounding success of informa's inaugural Mobile NFC event in London, the event returns for it's 2nd edition with a completely updated programme, new case studies, more networking and expanded sessions to cover all aspects of NFC technology and applications. For a number of years, the potential of m-commerce has been much hyped but has seen its growth thwarted by a lack of technology advancements and regulation. Mobile NFC has helped buck this trend and enabled real m-commerce applications to come to market. The ease of use and customer acceptance of this technology (based on the success of current contactless solutions) could see widespread Mobile NFC usage acting as the tipping point for the progression to the ubiquitous mobile wallet. The potential of Mobile NFC technology to enable a multi-layered transaction offering is only the tip of the iceberg. Amongst the other potential Mobile NFC applications being explored include interactive advertising, ...

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Innovision launches next-generation NFC/RFID tag platform with up to 2Kbytes memory, sampling available second half of 2008

June 11, 2008 – 4:09 pm
Innovision Research & Technology has launched a next-generation NFC/RFID tag platform offering up to 2Kbytes of memory. This new IC platform allows RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) integrators to select the optimal tag for their application performance and price requirements. It is intended to meet demand for high volume, small size, lower cost RFID/NFC tags for integration into smart objects, providing a family of devices finely tuned to their specific application requirement. The additional memory sizes in the platform have increased from today's 96Bytes up to 512Bytes and it now offers even faster read/write/test operation speeds. These meet or exceed the data storage requirements for all anticipated non-payment NFC applications, including peer-to-peer connectivity, service initiation and Smart Posters. These larger memories will also allow developers to use digital signatures for more secure RFID/NFC applications. With a product roadmap providing memories up to 2Kbytes already specified by the NFC Forum, the platform is ...

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