BlueSky have a SIM not-only with AGPS on board, but now they squeezed NFC on to it too.
When the SIM, sitting in your mobile phone, arrived first in handsets they were lucky to hold more than about 50 contact numbers. Those days have clearly changed – drastically.
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An NFC payment system is on trial in Amsterdam allowing people taking part to make purchases using their mobile phone.
We’re massive fans of NFC (Near Field Communications) and have been for close to two years. We see it as a significant way to enhance the function of your mobile phone (primarily), as well as a new way of getting content to your phone.
Eight companies are getting together for the latest trial, this time lead by Japanese credit card giant JCB and marks Europe’s first contactless international credit payment scheme using a Nokia 3220 with an NFC chip.
Selected JCB cardholders are provided with a mobile phone by Nokia, which are equipped with an NFC chip, developed by NXP and loaded with the JCB payment application developed by Gemalto.
The first transaction of the pilot was conducted at Sushi Time, the Japanese sushi restaurant in the World Trade Center in Amsterdam.
At selected PaySquare merchants, cardholders can securely purchase items by just holding their mobile phone close to ViVOtech’s contactless NFC reader/writer, which is attached to the payment terminal of CCV.
Approximately 100 selected JCB cardholders are now enjoying fast, easy, and convenient payments with Mobile J/Speedy at selected merchants, where they used to pay by cash.
Although it has only been one month since the trial was launched, the increasing number of repeat usage indicates a strong acceptance of the technology and a very successful pilot.
“Feedback from the first users of Mobile J/Speedy has been very encouraging and we are pleased to now be able to involve a wider group of customers,” said Hajime Matsuura, branch manager of JCB International’s Amsterdam branch.
The first European NFC-based public transport ticketing trials took place within the local bus network in the city of Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany in 2005.
Expect plenty more news on NFC trials.
According to industry insiders, trials of mobile phones doubling as payment tools will be taking place in Taiwan shortly, marking a big step for the nation’s contactless technology development.
They’re using Near Field Communication (NFC), a close-range wireless technology that operates over a few centimeters, enabling the simple transfer of information. Created by Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation, it uses a restricted version of RFID and we’ve been last 18 months, or so.
Taiwanese cardholders can already make payments at contracted petrol stations, coffee shops, video rental stores, train stations etc by simply waving their NFC-enabled device in front of sensor devices.
BenQ, one of the 12 partners in the NFC consortium, is expected to deliver 100 new mobile phones embedded with smart chips for the trial program next month.
Stage one of the trials will be conducted by Taipei Smart Card Corp, who will start testing the BenQ phones as a means of payment for services on bus lines, the MRT and public parking lots in the capital.
If that all goes tickety-boo, developers will look to strike deals with mobile service providers to integrate chips with Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards in handsets, giving access to mobile banking functions and even debit or credit card functionality.
The merging of cell phones and IC-chips is part of the government’s M-Taiwan (mobile-Taiwan) scheme, which put together a (NFC) consortium in November last year.
Taiwan’s alliance pooled the resources of BenQ, Taipei Smart Card, the Institute for Information Industry, five cellphone service providers, MasterCard International and Visa International.
NFC handset payment services are already tickling the public’s imagination in Japan and South Korea.
In Japan, Sony has been conducting contactless payment services with a mobile phone operator and train company, and in South Korea, SK Telecom has launched the Moneta card program with a circulation of 100,000 Visa-enabled mobile handsets.
According to Peter Manners, regional head of Visa International Asia-Pacific, the next phase is to promote the use of Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) cards in 3G handsets.
Addressing besuited execs at the Smart Card Expo at the Taipei International Convention Center, Manners said Taiwan is second only to Malaysia in the Asia-Pacific in terms of chip-embedded card penetration.
Nokia 3220 Brings Contactless Payment and Ticketing
BenQ
NFC Forum
The world’s first Near Field Communications (NFC) product for payment and ticketing will be an enhanced version of the already announced Nokia NFC shell for Nokia 3220 phone.
Near Field Communications (NFC) may sound like something the Borg use to transmit their evil plans to each other, but in fact it’s a new short-range wireless system for electronics, mobile devices and PCs.
Whereas Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have a range anywhere between 33 feet and 300 feet, NFC only works much closer to home. A mere eight inches, in fact, which makes it great for conducting local transactions, like buying travel tickets.
Here’s how it works: a consumer’s payment credentials, such as their debit and credit card details/transport tickets, are securely stored in the integrated smart card chip of the Nokia NFC shell.
Users sporting the new phone can then make local payments by simply touching a point of sales device or ticket gate with their phone. Fast, quick and efficient (if it works, of course).
Naturally, the Man from Visa is visibly purring with excitement, “Visa is always looking for exciting, first-rate innovations that advance the field of contactless payment and we are pleased to join forces with Nokia in this pioneering effort,” said Jim Lee, senior vice president, Product Technology and Standards, Visa International.
“The development of the Nokia NFC shell serves as a natural extension of Visa’s contactless card and phone programs around the world. Moreover, it aligns well with Visa’s commitment to enabling payments anywhere, anytime, through any device.”
The first NFC-based public transport ticketing trials with Nokia 3220 mobile phones will be taking place within the local bus network in the city of Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany, with the Nokia NFC shell for payment and ticketing promised for mid 2005.
Nokia 3220
Nokia NFC demo
Nokia NFC
Near-Field Communications
NFC Forum
Aura Communications has announced the first samples of its LibertyLink LL888 system-on-chip, for enabling high-quality wireless voice and stereo audio. The chip provides wireless stereo headphone capability for MP3 players, portable DVD players and audio-capable mobile phones – or indeed virtually any portable product where digital audio performance must be coupled with long battery life and low cost. The technology was previewed in ‘real life’ earlier his year by Creative Technology, whose wireless-enabled Zen Micro MP3 player is based on the LibertyLink LL888 chip.
The most interesting feature of the LibertyLink LL888 is that it uses a patented form of Near Field Communication (NFC) rather than conventional radio frequency technology (such as Bluetooth) to enable digital audio wireless performance. NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity standard that uses magnetic field induction to enable communication between devices when they’re touched together, or brought within a few centimetres of each other.
Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, the standard specifies a way for the devices to establish a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to exchange data. After the P2P network has been configured, another wireless communication technology, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, can be used for longer range communication or for transferring larger amounts of data.
Unlike Bluetooth, which radiates in the crowded frequency band at 2.4GHz, Aura’s technology is more private and secure as it operates at 13.5MHz – it completely avoids the interference of the 2.4GHz band. Aura Communications claims that the chip’s magnetic signals creates a ‘secure communication bubble that surrounds the user and is uniquely owned by each user for reliable and private communications.
The chip is currently scheduled for production quantity availability by the second quarter of 2005, with pricing set on an individual customer basis, but expected to be under $5 (US) in OEM quantities.
Nokia has lifted the lid on the world’s first NFC (Near Field Communication) equipped mobile phone by adding the special NFC clip-on shell to their 3220, a tri-band camera phone that is available in two versions (Euro/Asia & America). With its build-in NFC shell, the phone is the latest step in the development of innovative products for mobile communications.
NFC is essentially a contactless technology that allows for short-range two-way wireless connectivity using a tag and a reader. Developed jointly by Philips, Sony and Nokia, it is based on short-range (10 cm, 3.9”) radio frequency (RF) technology, an NFC-enabled mobile device lets you access services or operate your mobile device by placing it near a tag or share information by bringing two devices close to each other. When you’re near a tag, your mobile phone reads the tags content by emitting a short-range radio signal that powers up the tag’s microchip, allowing you to execute an action, such as opening a Web page, calling a number, or sending an SMS. The opportunities for the Media business, in particular advertising are immediately obvious. People passing posters, wanting to find out more information are able to directly request it there and then, at the point of impulse. It could them be immediately delivered by bringing up a Web page of info or received via email for later consumption. Vivendi Universal has also trialed selling tickets to films, simply by placing the phone on a NFC spot on a film poster. Similarly, by communicating with an enabled device such as a TV, the mobile device can send a picture to it It is currently unclear to us how much bandwidth will be offered by NFC, but we would assume it will be low, being more along the lines of ZigBee than Bluetooth. If this is the case, transferring a 1Mpx image will be a slow and painful process.
NFC is different from other contactless or RFID technologies in that it has a very short operating distance and also allows two devices to interconnect. The effective distance of an NFC solution depends on the tag design and the reader, but is only a few centimetres in Nokia’s solution.
The potential benefits of the technology include improved usability, easier access to services and content via physical objects, convenient sharing of digital items between devices by bringing them next to each other – such as swapping electronic business cards with clients – and local payment and ticketing capabilities. This has already been trialed in the Frankfurt transport system.
“Touch-based interactions will improve the consumer experience of existing services and create new opportunities for users to benefit from their phones. This technology has the potential to significantly improve the way operators provide and users discover and activate different mobile services,” said Gerhard Romen, Head of Market Development at Nokia Ventures Organisation. ‘By introducing the new Nokia NFC shell, Nokia clearly demonstrates strong commitment to offer users an intuitive wireless experience.” Samsung Electronics has also mentioned that it intends to manufacture NFC phones.
Tech Background to NFC – NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56MHz frequency range, over a distance of typically a few centimetres. NFC technology is standardised in ISO 18092, ISO 21481, ECMA (340, 352 and 356) and ETSI TS 102 190. NFC is also compatible with the broadly-established contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, which is supported by Philips’ MIFARE technology and Sony’s FeliCa card.
If you want to know where consumer electronics are moving, there’s no better place to find out than via the people that make the chips that will power these devices.
One that came into being last year that really impressed us last year at IFA was NXP, a spin-off from Philips, essentially what used to be their chip R&D division.
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With the fortieth anniversary of the first ATM, or cashpoint as it’s known in the UK, the BBC has an interview with the man who came up with the idea, 82 year old John Shepherd-Barron (pictured).
He recounts that the original idea for the dispenser was chocolate bars – true currency in some people’s minds – but this was replaced with the far more profitable idea of dishing out money.
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USB rules the roost for people loading and unloading content on and off their mobiles phones. It was employed in more handsets than all other interface standards combined in 2006, according to iSuppli Corp.
While the wireless alternatives of WiFi and Bluetooth might grab the news headlines, good old-fashioned USB keeps doing the doo, primarily because some sort of USB is on pretty much any computer since it’s introduction ten years ago.
iSupply think this dominance will continue to the point where, by the end of 2010, USB will still be the leading local interface, being included 764 million of all handsets shipped that year. They also think that Bluetooth will be fitted to all handsets, while NFC and WiFi will become stronger that their currently weak position.
Alongside getting content on and off the phone using the varied interfaces, there will be a corresponding increase in flash memory add-in cards. iSupply are predicting significant increases, with the 186m units shipped in 2005 increasing to 640m units in 2010.
It was interesting to note that the whole range of new Sony Ericsson phones were fitted with Memory Stick Micro (M2), and not the now-standard Memory Sticks. When we queried it with company people, they said that was the trend, allowing the size of the handsets to shrink.
Digital wallets have come a step closer with the news that Motorola will be trialling Mastercard’s PassPay service in some areas of the US by the end of the year.
The trial will involve two new Motorola handsets, but the company has not yet announced which ones they will be. The phones will use Near Field Communications technology to enable contactless purchases with new Motorola handsets.
Electronic purchases typically enhanced by NFC include buying travel tickets, a service already enjoyed by users in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.
McDonalds and Loews Cinemas are amongst businesses that already offer PayPass services, in this case in Orlando, but the Motorola trial is expected to reach to states beyond Florida.
Ron Hamma, vice president and director of enterprise business development at Motorola said ian a statement: “Motorola is excited to be working with MasterCard to create a phone that has the potential to be lifestyle changing, and offers a convenient, fast, and secure method of payment. In essence your phone will become your wallet, key chain and your ID. Fully integrating MasterCard PayPass technology in our phones is a natural fit and major benefit to the consumer.”