A memorandum of understanding has been agreed between GlobalPlatform, and the Association Européenne Payez Mobile (AEPM). The two bodies will align technical advances that will assist the market in bringing mobile payment services to European citizens.

AEPM develops specifications and facilitates trials to promote and accelerate the deployment of contactless mobile payment in Europe. Its existing technology is compliant with GlobalPlatform’s UICC Configuration, a technical document that outlines a neutral environment to support the secure delivery over-the-air of mobile services to consumers. 

Zapa Technology, a Dublin, Ireland company due to launch an NFC-like ZapaTag in the next few months, has received about $3.5 million in funding from venture capital firm Delta Partners.

The infusion of capital will allow Zapa, one of the first companies in Europe to make use of NFC, to roll out a number of applications.

Read more here.  

Macrumors.com has discovered new Apple patents that may show the future of the iPhone.

Potentially in store for the device are biometrics that would recognize a users different fingerprint patterns for security and to activate different applications. “So the index finger might mean email, while the middle finger music, etc, alternatively different fingers could mean different actions, so again index finger might play music while the middle finger might stop it,” the site states. 

Motorola has joined Via Licensing Corp.’s joint licensing program for patents essential to NFC usage. The program is designed to provide fair and convenient access to essential patents through a single license agreement.

Among the applications covered by this program are NFC–compliant mobile phones, consumer electronic devices, and commercial systems such as payment processing terminals, transportation terminals, and vending machines.

A range of related technical specifications published by ISO, ETSI, and the NFC Forum are covered by the NFC patent pool agreement and are available here.  

In what is being billed as one of the largest NFC pilots so far, Citi is making mobile phone payments available in India in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and VIVOtech. Some 5,000 people will participate in Citi’s Tap and Pay Bangalore trial.

The pilot will include Nokia’s NFC-enabled 6212 classic phone. Vodafone is the mobile network operator for the pilot service while MasterCard will offer its MasterCard PayPass contactless payment and security infrastructure.

Read more here.  

German smart card provider Multicard has launched a new contactless and dual interface microcontroller application that can combine different high-frequency contactless technologies on a single IC. The new card uses a single processor for both a LEGIC applet and the MIFARE technology from NXP to enable the use of a single identification credential in different environments, including legacy installations. 

Gemalto announced it has been selected by MTN Uganda for its national mobile payment program. Service rollout started in March and to date, around 180,000 m-payment transactions have already been performed.


MTN Uganda is part of the MTN Group, a multinational telecommunications group operating in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East and serving more than 100 million subscribers, including 4.2 million in Uganda. Gemalto provided MTN Uganda with a solution that includes the server for interconnecting the operator with its banking service provider, and the SIM cards storing and executing the m-payment application.