Near Field Communications Handsets and Tags, NFC Pilots and Projects

Dubai set for NFC payments trial

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Consumer finance company Dubai First and a local telecommunications company are preparing to launch the UAE’s first NFC payments pilot with a commercial rollout slated for later this year. The six month trial will involve 250 Dubai First Platinum MasterCard customers in the Jumeirah Beach Residence area of Dubai.

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PayPal has begun testing new mobile payments software at five Home Depot stores in the U.S., according to American Banker.

PayPal’s system offers an alternative to NFC-based mobile payments solutions like Google Wallet, enabling consumers to make payments directly from their PayPal balance by simply punching in their phone number and PIN. Merchants also have a comparatively easier time adopting the system, as it only requires updated software rather than new point of sale equipment.

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Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest financial institution, has begun a commercial trial of SIM-based NFC mobile payments, reports NFC World.

The service, dubbed “Move and Pay,” is being tested among 600 Intesa Sanpaolo employees and customers in Milan and Turin, as well as by two academic institutions: The Polytechnic Institute of Milan and Turin ISMB.

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Globus Supermarkets in the Czech Republic has plans to equip all of its stores with contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminals, following a successful NFC payments trail conducted in conjunction with Telefónica O2, Komerční Banka, Citibank and Visa Europe.

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Superdrug, one of Britain’s largest beauty and health retailers, has introduced contactless payment for its in-store customers, according to Retail Gazette.

Created by Streamline and Visa Europe, the contactless system will enable customers to make payments of up to £15 (approx. USD $23) by simply waving their contactless bank card at the more than 50 participating Superdrug stores in London and Liverpool.

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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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Absa, the largest consumer bank in South Africa, has announced an internal trial of NFC-enabled contactless payments, according to IT News Africa.

Scheduled to kick off later this month, the pilot will see 500 Absa employees equip their BlackBerry smart phones with NFC-enabled MicroSD cards that can be used to make contactless payments.

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