Commercial launches
SIM-based NFC services have already been commercially launched in several countries, such as South Korea. France, Singapore, UK, USA, Poland, Canada, China, Japan, Turkey, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.
France: A partnership between multiple mobile operators, banks and trusted service managers launched NFC-based services in the city of Nice in May 2010. The services, branded Cityzi, include access to local and cultural information, purchase and validation of urban transport tickets, real time traffic information and timetables, coupons and loyalty programmes with major retailers and contactless mobile payment with major banks. The partnership is now rolling out similar NFC services to nine more French cities such as Caen where commuters will be able to use NFC devices to pay for their bus and tram tickets from June 2013.
South Korea: In October 2010, operator KT launched commercial SIM-based NFC services, including e-money, loyalty cards, ticketing, transport prepayments, information and mobile marketing.
Turkey: Operator Turkcell launched commercial NFC services in early 2011. In Turkey, consumers can now use NFC handsets to pay for goods at points of sale in 55,000 participating retailers, redeem food vouchers, travel on public transport and retrieve information from smart posters. Consumers don’t pay for the services, but the participating banks, which benefit from a reduction in overheads and greater market penetration, pay Turkcell a monthly fee.
The United Kingdom: BarclayCard and Orange have launched a NFC-based service, which enables consumers to use their handsets to pay for purchases of up to £15 in sandwich shops and other merchants. In total, 15,000 retail outlets are supporting the service.
Tanzania: Etisalat subsidiary, Zantel, has launched a payment service in Tanzania that enables consumers to purchase goods, services, tickets and mobile credit top-ups by pressing an NFC-enabled device against the merchant’s point of sale terminal and validating the transaction with a password.
More momentum in 2013
Mobile NFC is set to gain even greater momentum during 2013. In the Netherlands, for example, a joint venture of KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone, with ABN Amro, ING and Rabobank, plans to launch mobile NFC services in 2012, while in the U.S., AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have formed the ISIS joint venture to launch NFC-based services in the same year.
The GSMA has identified several other key markets that are on the cusp of launching SIM-based NFC services. These include:
Belgium
In Belgium, the mobile operators and banks are in discussions about the development of NFC services following a trial by Belgacom of NFC-based services.
Poland
Poland already has a well-developed NFC ecosystem and the country’s mobile operators are working on the development and deployment of interoperable UICC based NFC services.
Japan
Commercial NFC services are already available in Japan but the country’s operators are interested in migrating to Single Wire Protocol (SWP) NFC, which will enable international collaboration and interoperability.
Canada
The Canadian market NFC ecosystem is developing steadily with a high penetration of contactless payments infrastructure and Canadian operators and banks are preparing for the roll out of mobile NFC payment services.
Australia
Mobile operator Telstra has been piloting NFC-based payments in partnership with National Australia Bank and Visa.
Brazil
All of Brazil’s major mobile operators are committed to rolling out NFC services and the contactless infrastructure in the country’s transit ticketing industry is developing rapidly.
China
Both China Mobile and China Unicom, which account for nearly 800 million connections throughout China, have committed to support and implement SIM-based NFC solutions and services.
The Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland)
Several NFC trials and pilots are taking place in the Nordic region. For example, mobile operator Telenor is working with retailers in Oslo to test NFC services and Stockholm’s Clarion Hotel now enables guests to access their rooms using NFC.
