Near Field Communications Handsets and Tags, NFC Pilots and Projects

Haiti disaster sparks mass mobile donations

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The earthquake in Haiti last week has spurred conscientious mobile users to donate in droves, according to digitaltransactions.net.

As of Monday morning, more than 2 million donors had given $21 million in $10 increments to the American Red Cross’s Haitian earthquake-relief effort through mobile payment.


According to Digital Transactions, the disaster has revealed mobile payment to be the quickest way to move cash, allowing donators to supply aid instantaneously. The new interest in mobile payment could be the push into the mainstream the NFC industry is looking for.

Donations to the Red Cross were paid by sending a text message to 90999. Other charities, such as Save the Children Federation, are using text messages to send donations to Haiti as well.

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Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s head of Emerging Payments, has some good news for those waiting on NFC-enabled phones for contactless payments.

In an interview with Fast Company, McLaughlin said that he didn’t know of a handset maker who wasn’t working on integrating support for PayPass contactless payments.

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The Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) has announced the launch of its new Mobile Payments Report, a market research service that examines the mobile phone as a payments device, financial managing tool, marketing channel and as a method of engaging with consumers.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will hold a workshop on April 26 to examine the use of mobile payments and how this emerging technology impacts consumers.

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Smart Communications, a mobile operator based in the Philippines, has announced the launch of its new Smart Money “Tap2Pay” mobile payments solution.

The first service of its kind in the Philippines, Tap2Pay lets users make payments with a simple tap of their NFC-enabled phone at the point of sale.

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Swedish mobile operators Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 have formed a joint venture to offer a unified mobile wallet service. Operating under the name “4T,” the partners plan to deliver a mobile payments service that can be used on all handsets regardless of the cellular network.

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Barclays and Barclaycard have teamed up with the London Community Gospel Choir to put a new spin on charitable donations this holiday season, reports Shiny Shiny.

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