Three of the four carriers of Research In Motion’s recently announced BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 are offering the handsets without NFC technology, according to FierceWireless.

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon failed to mention NFC in their press releases announcing the launch of the new handset—Sprint was the only one— yet all four carriers have demonstrated interest in supporting the technology.

When reached for comment, a T-Mobile spokeswoman told FW that “although we’re not enabling NFC capabilities at launch, we are working with RIM on future options related to NFC.”

An AT&T spokesman added that the company’s involvement in Isis is a clear indication of their support for NFC. 

Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility should throw the company’s Mobile Wallet plans into hyper-drive, according to On Wall Street.

Thanks to the acquisition, Google will not have to rely solely on the Sprint Nexus S to carry its Mobile Wallet service. Now the company will be able to design, manufacture and sell its own mobile phones - potentially with preloaded Mobile Wallet technology , says OWS. 

Telefónica Germany, Telekom and Vodafone have announced the formation of a new NFC payments joint venture under the ‘mpass’ brand.

Already used by subscribers for paying their bills via mobile phone, the mpass service will soon be expanded to enable mobile users on all of Germany’s networks to perform contactless transactions at the point of sale. 

The Museum of London is teaming up with Nokia to equip its exhibits with NFC technology, according to Noknok.tv.

The new design will allow visitors to swipe their NFC-enabled handsets near special tags from Nokia to receive pictures, links and other downloadable info about a given exhibit, rather than wear the guided tour headset. 

Conrad Harvey, the IT head of Australian supermarket chain Coles, says he is hesitant to go forward with a major NFC payments trial due to concerns over security, reports ZDNet Australia.

Speaking at a CEDA event in Sydney, Harvey said, “There’s an exciting opportunity in changing the way we can further interact with customers using NFC. We are going to become contactless in the near future, but I think one of the things we want to see is how the technology becomes more robust and secure.” 

Research firm Gartner has placed NFC payments at the peak of the ‘Inflated Expectations’ curve in its 2011 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle.

According to Gartner, The Hype Cycle graph has been used since 1995 to highlight the common pattern of “over-enthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism” that accompanies each new technology and innovation.

“Themes from this year’s Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle include ongoing interest and activity in social media, cloud computing and mobile,” said Jackie Fenn, vice president and fellow at Gartner. “Mobile technologies continue to be part of most of our clients’ short- and long-range plans and are present on this Hype Cycle in the form of media tablets, NFC payments, quick response (QR)/color codes, mobile application stores and location-aware applications.” 

Merchant incentives, liability shifts but questions abound

Visa Inc. unveiled plans and incentives for U.S. merchants to deploy EMV with an eye toward near field communication, the company announced in August.

EMV via contact chip, contactless or NFC all use dynamic authentication to reduce a fraudsters ability to use stolen credit card data. The U.S. is one of the only industrialized countries in the world that hasn’t moved to EMV payments.

To encourage the transition Visa is doing three things. Effective Oct. 2012, Visa will expand its Technology Innovation Program to the U.S. and eliminate the PCI Data Security Standard requirement for eligible merchants in which at least 75% of the Visa transactions originate from chip-enabled terminals.