USA Technologies and ViVOtech have decided upon an agreement where ViVOtech will provide 25,000 contactless and magnetic stripe card readers for USA Technologies’ ePort technology. USA Technologies made an initial purchase of 10,000 readers from ViVOtech in 2007 that were installed with the ePort in vending machines.

“Our latest order of 25,000 wireless readers is in response to increasing demand from the vending industry for our contactless technology. Adoption of our ePort technology is increasing,” said George Jensen, chairman and CEO at USA Technologies Inc.

Maxis Communications Bhd hopes to grow its active 1.3 million 3G user base with the introduction of three new products, including a new NFC service, reports The Star Online. Head of Strategy and New Business Nikolai Dobberstein said, “The growing demand for data services was encouraging.”

Dobberstein said Malaysain-based Maxis is working on NFC technology to enable its subscribers to use their mobile phones for payment at Visa payWave and Touch n Go terminals.

Juniper Research reports that around 52 million consumers globally will adopt new mobile technologies such as NFC and other mobile payment methods by 2011. This will help drive the physical mobile payments market to $11.5 billion by the same year, according to Business Intelligence Middle East. NFC and other mobile payments methods will offer consumers a viable alternative both to cash, credit and debit cards.

Other findings from the report show that mobile payment applications and services are already available in most regions in a variety of formats where they are being adopted in either a trial or commercial mode with favorable user feedback.

The Washington Post ranks NFC as #2 on their “Top 10 coolest things at CTIA 2008” list saying: “Blaze Mobile has developed a mobile application to allow you to track bank accounts and debit and credit cards from several banks and services. It allows you to make contactless payments using near-field communications. If your phone doesn’t have NFC, you can sign up for a prepaid MasterCard through Blaze that gives you a NFC sticker to make payments. The app costs $4.99 a month.”

Read the full story here.  

SCM Microsystems has announced the release of its new “NFC dongle.” This is a USB device that connects users’ NFC-enabled mobile devices to their PCs. The new SCM device hopes to bridge the gap between the Web and NFC mobile devices.

“…To become firmly established in the (NFC) market, there must be a sufficient number of compelling applications and solutions using NFC technology. Our new dongle enables such applications and fills a need in the market for reliable, secure contactless connectivity devices,” said Felix Marx, Chief Executive Officer of SCM Microsystems.

Users can access and transfer information and data that has been stored in their mobile devices, such as vouchers, coupons, tickets and product details. In addition, the reader can be used for mobile smart-ticketing, data exchange and virtual connections, as well as ticketing and secure payment for public transportation, entertainment and other transactions.  

The government of India plans to disperse rural pensions through centers equipped with NFC based cell phones until the end of 2008, according to report from Eppn.com. Fourteen banks are using the system in 42 districts in 17 states in India.

Banks issue smart cards to pension recipients with biometric information in order to ensure that the person operating the account is the same person who opens the account. The cellular phone then functions as the bank’s computer in the village, and processes all of the bank’s transactions. The government gives 2 percent of the amounts being transferred as commission to the banks, while the bank shares this technology with its business correspondents.

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Kyocera’s introduces NFC technology in a demo handset of an E2000 cell phone, at CTIA 2008 according to cnet.com. The new NFC capability would allow Kyocera E2000 cell phone users to make small purchases, just by the touch of their fingertip.

The handset avoids fraudulent charges by using a fingerprint scanner to identify the phone’s owner. Without the necessary fingerprint, the handset will not allow NFC purchases.

The Kyocera booth was demonstrating the NFC capability by enabling visitors to purchase items like chewing gum, and after check out allowing them to swipe the phone over the store’s scanner. In real practice, the purchase would then show up on the user’s credit card bill. A spokeswoman also mentioned that you could train the phone to use different credit cards depending on how you swipe the scanner.

Read the full story here.  

Maxis Communications, a Malaysian telecommunications provider, has concluded a three-month NFC pilot, according the Computerworld Malaysia. Tests were conducted in the Clang Valley in October, 2007, using partners such as Maybank, Visa payWave, Touch n’ Go, RapidKL and cell phone manufacturer Nokia’s 6131 handset, equipped with NFC technology.

Maxis has already launched a mobile commerce payment service called M-money, and said it would launch its new commercial service in the second half of the year.

Read the full story here.  

Indonesia is increasingly pondering contactless payments as a result of the NFC theme set by the RFID Asia Summit 2008. As reported by PR.com Goh Say Yeow, executive vice president of sales and managing director Asia Pacific of INSIDE Contactless, presented the market trends and development of contactless payments in the region.

Going further with NFC technology, Jonathon Gould, vice president of Asia Pacific at Biotech reviewed different generations of electronic payment system with contactless payment becoming the latest trend. Chua Thian Yee, CEO of CASSIS, focused on the NFC technology used for mobile payment, reviewing the consumer landscape, the fundamentals of NFC technology and several mobile payment cases.  

It has been rumored that the Citigroup organization has an NFC mobile phone under development that it plans to brand with the Citi logo. The phone will utilize an NFC payment application developed by Citi on the handsets, according to a report filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The report, submitted in March, clearly shows the Citi logo on the front of the tiny handset.

The bank last year held what it later called a successful Near Field Communication test that involved storing a MasterCard Worldwide PayPass application on phones made by Nokia for subscribers of large U.S. mobile operator AT&T. But the branded phone that has been tested to meet FCC rules for its NFC features appears to be targeted at the U.S. market. It is a GSM handset complying with frequencies used by mobile operators there. The phone is small and light, leading one observer to speculate Citi plans to issue the phone at little or no cost to customers at all.