Integri, a provider test tools for payment, ticketing and mobile applications, and MicroPross, a supplier of test hardware, announced a partnership to offer a test solution to conform with the NFC Forum specifications for Near Field Communication technology.

Before launching an NFC project, cards and readers need to be verified and debugged to ensure accuracy and interoperability. Both companies have released tools to test NFC applications at communication and timing levels (Level 1) covering ISO 14443 type A & B, Felica and MiFare. 

by Ed McKinley, Contributing Editor, Avisian Publications

There’s a number of things holding back near field communication, the lack of devices being number one or two on that list followed by the lack of a business case for mobile providers and financial institutions.

But some are moving past those obstacles. Major players in the payments industry are promoting near field communication stickers linked to prepaid accounts as an intermediate step toward paying with mobile phones.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced a deal with Alameda, Calif.-based Blaze Mobile Inc. to market the stickers, and Visa USA is working with Greenwood, Colo.-based First Data Corp. to popularize the GO-Tags that can take the form of stickers, pins, key fobs or wristbands. 

Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority, which is developing a revamped fare system allowing riders to pay with contactless credit cards, may expand that service to include NFC-compliant phones as well.

“I think it’s one of the most promising technologies out there,” commented Joseph Moriarty, the RTA’s principal analyst. “More people carry a cell phone than carry credit or debit cards.”

Once implemented, it’s a system that could extend to other transit systems around the country, meaning an NFC phone is all a rider would need to access transportation in San Francisco, which has already tested NFC, or Chicago. No cash, paper ticket or pass would be needed.

Read more here.  

GlobalPlatform announced that CARDigence has joined as its newest consultant member. The consultancy, which specializes in providing strategic and technical consulting and implementation services for smart card projects, joins GlobalPlatform within the mobile and ID card sectors.

As a consultant member, CARDigence will be able to monitor developments in GlobalPlatform’s card, device and systems technology and debate the organization’s business and technical priorities by participating in the advisory council; a forum attended by GlobalPlatform’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. The company will also have the opportunity to engage in GlobalPlatform’s government and mobile task force initiatives.  

The NFC Forum is hosting a June 2 Webcast to announce its new “Target Mark,” a stylized “N” symbol that will allow consumers to easily identify embedded NFC tags. By holding an NFC-enabled device close to the Target Mark, consumers will be able to pick up information from objects such as posters, bus stop signs, parking permits, street signs, medicines, magazine pages, food packaging and more.

NFC Forum experts will be on hand during the Webcast to discuss the Target Mark roll-out plan, provide guidelines and illustrations for how it will be used, and explain supporting NFC Forum specifications. At the conclusion of the Webcast, Forum representatives will answer questions regarding use of its Target Mark.

The Webcast will be held at 9 a.m. EDT June 2. To register, go here.  

Forget contactless stickers. Just get on with NFC, a Boston, Mass. researcher argues. Nick Holland, Aite Group, tells Digital Transactions that contactless stickers, the kind that can be affixed to cell phones or PDAs and are meant to serve as an interim step before NFC takes hold, are “fundamentally flawed.”

He believes the stickers, which he calls “semi-NFC initiatives,” could actually turn people away from NFC when it becomes commercially available because of their limited functionality and because the stickers could be seen as defacing the devices.

Read more here.  

Dynamic Card Solutions, an Englewood, Colo. instant card issuance provider for financial institutions, has launched a new contactless personalization platform—the CardWizard Perso-to-Go—that enables financial institutions to instantly personalize mobile devices, fobs and contactless stickers at the branch level for NFC payments.