Solacia has announced it will provide its NFC-enabled USIM cards to SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile service provider.

The $16 million contract, which also calls for Solacia’s Combi USIM, is the first of its kind for USIM technology, setting a new precedent as global mobile companies prepare to integrate NFC into new mobile devices, according to Solacia. 

Mobile payments users are expected to grow by 40% to reach 2.5 billion globally by 2015, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

Juniper says the Far East & China region will be the largest market for mobile payments in 2015, accounting for nearly 30% of the total by 2015, while the Indian Sub-Continent is forecast to exceed 400 million users by 2015. 

Multicard has announced that it is partnering with Dutch financial services company Rabobank and the Royal Dutch Hockey Federation (KNHB) to kick off its Cashless Betalen mobile payment solution.

Geared toward Holland’s hockey and football clubs, the system uses NFC stickers that can be attached to smart phones to turn the devices into prepaid digital wallets, enabling organizations with shared funds to simplify the payment process for social activities like a post-game meal. 

American Express and foursquare have announced the national roll out a service that enables AmEx customers to link their foursquare profiles to their cards to load and redeem merchant ‘Specials’ without the need for coupons, special codes or showing their mobile devices to cashiers.

Powered by American Express’ Smart Offer APIs, the service requires card members to register on sync.americanexpress.com/foursquare, where they can link their foursquare profile to their card in order to receive exclusive American Express Specials at foursquare venues.

When the customer sees a Special on foursquare they want to take advantage of (for example: spending $75 at H&M and getting $10 back), they ‘check in’ to the merchant and simply load the Special to their card, says Amex. After the customer makes the purchase, they receive a push notification stating they successfully redeemed the Special and will receive an American Express statement credit in three to five days. 

Australia’s ANZ Bank says it will not pursue mobile contactless payments via NFC-enabled MicroSD cards following a failed pilot of the technology this past spring, according to ZDNet.

ANZ partnered with Visa to launch the service in March, which required users to equip their iPhone or Android handset with an special case featuring a MicroSD card pre-programmed with a user’s banking information. To make payments, users needed to open app on the phone and tap it against a Visa PayWave contactless reader, says ZDNet. 

TDC, Telenor, TeliaSonera and 3 Denmark have joined forces to launch a digital wallet service based on NFC technology, reports PC World.

Expected to roll out this fall, the service will allow customers to use their mobile phones to make contactless purchases, pay for fares on public transit, use digital coupons and even check out library books. 

VingCard Elsafe has announced the launch of a new service that enables hotel guests to check in remotely through their PC or smart phone and receive room keys directly to their NFC-enabled phone.

Compatible with existing contactless locks, the solution uses NFC as a secure delivery infrastructure for distributing and managing virtual keys securely on mobile devices. These virtual room keys are sent to the guest’s NFC phone on the day of arrival, allowing the guest to bypass the front desk and head straight to their room, says VingCard. The door is opened by simply holding the phone within 10 cm of the lock.