Another NFC pilot has been launched, this one in Australia. Mobile operator Telstra is leading the new pilot along with National Australia Bank, Visa, some 200 consumers and 12 participating merchants in Melbourne.

These consumers will be able to download their NAB Visa credit card software application onto their Telstra mobile phone SIM card, enabling them to make purchases of up to $31, by waving their phone over a contactless reader. No indication was given as to how long the trial will last.

Read more here.  

Full commercial deployment of near field communication has taken another step forward with the announcement from Giesecke & Devrient and over the air provider Venyon of successful interoperability tests between the companies’ two components.

Trusted Service Manager (TSM) offerings provided by Venyon, a joint venture of G&D and Nokia, enable mobile operators and service providers to securely issue their applications and services on NFC-enabled mobile phones via the mobile network. The interoperability tests involving G&D’s NFC-enabled ProxSIM cards and Venyon’s TSM services confirmed that both components comply with the necessary industry standards, such as those of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, GlobalPlatform and JavaCard.

Supermarkets may be the next target market for near field communication phones, at least according to presentations during the recent IT Leadership Summit of the National Retail Federation.

One of the presenters, an executive for supermarket chain Cincinnati-based Kroger says NFC phones are a good fit for supermarkets because of their time-saving potential. “Nobody stands in a grocery line because it’s a pleasure. We are looking to shave more than seconds off that line,” he said. He was one of several panelists discussing “Mobility and Near-field Communication - The New Era of Ubiquitous Retailing.”

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The Japanese government’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has announced plans to work with mobile phone makers worldwide to increase the use of Sony’s FeliCa chip in handsets, according to an Associated Press report. The ministry’s work may help speed the adoption of phone-based payments options in western countries.

FeliCa-enabled phones have been available in Japan since 2004, and most recent Japanese handset models have featured the technology. Now, the government ministry would like to see that happen in the rest of the world. FeliCa is similar to near field communication but uses a slightly different standard.

Singapore has rolled out a six-month NFC pilot that enables users to make payments with their cell phones. The trial involves electronic payments provider NETS, SingTel and United Overseas Bank. Participation is free. Customers also will be loaned a Nokia NFC phone to use during the pilot program.

A key highlight of this trial is a coupon initiative that enables users to open the coupon on their phones and flash it on a NETS FlashPay reader for the coupon to be automatically redeemed.

Read more here.  

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Nokia, a worldwide leader in Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, is launching a new 3G handset with embedded NFC called the 6212 Classic. Re:ID podcast host Chris Corum spoke with Damien Balsan, Nokia’s Head of NFC Business Development for the Americas, about the new device. The two also explored NFC progress in the Americas, the impact of differing handset sales channels on regional rollout, and whether the ‘killer application’ will prove to be payment or something a bit more personal.

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Mass volume and integrated NFC chips have taken a step forward with the recently announced partnership between Innovision Research & Technology and Sasken Communication Technologies that is designed to provide a one-stop NFC IP and software solution.

This first partnership between the two companies will allow Innovision to provide its customers with the Sasken NFC Protocol Stack software solution for integration with Innovision’s GEM NFC hardware IP product.

Banks, mobile operators merchants, handset manufacturers and others will have to work together if near field communication will be adopted, according to a research report from the Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payments Council. Eighty-six percent of industry stakeholders believe NFC-based proximity payments will be adopted, and it will happen with a collaboration model bringing the relevant parties together.

But what’s needed to move activities forward are trusted service managers to coordinate the activities of those involved, the report states. There are many issues that still need to be worked out, including final selection of handset and chip standards, merchant enablement, standards for certifying and deploying secure payment applications, and, lastly and most important, development of a model for revenue-sharing arrangements among stakeholders.

NFC mobile payments, for low transactions anyway, are expected to exceed $75 billion globally in the next five years, according to a new study from UK-based Juniper Research. In the second report in its Mobile Payment Markets series, the company found that there is a “significant opportunity” for NFC mobile payment services, chips, phones and supporting services as the market reaches its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period.

But, as the report’s author cautioned: The industry still needs “to convince both consumers and merchants of the merits of yet another payment mechanism on top of cash, checks, credit and debit cards, and to allay understandable (even if unfounded) fears and skepticism about the security of the mobile wallet.”