One of the first questions always asked about NFC technology–that’s seen lots of trials but little else–is when will it become commercially available? For Swedish telecom Ericsson, it’s 2010. That’s the prediction of the company’s vice president of systems architecture during his speech at Ericsson’s Business Innovation Forum in Stockholm this week.
“A year from now basically every new phone that’s sold will have NFC. It’s a two-way, bio-directional RFID communication link that makes this device work as a tag or as a reader,” said Håkan Djuphammar.
But he sees NFC phones as more than just a new payment medium, which has been the focus of most of the trials so far. He mentioned that Ericsson is currently working with a utilities company that has around 15,000 keys, a logistical nightmare. Allowing doors to be opened via an NFC-capable phone would eliminate those keys and give the company better access control.
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