| The China Mobile operator in Chongqing, in south-central China, hopes to launch a mobile payment trial using contactless, NFC, phones next spring, the Chongqing Daily reports. This would allow subscribers to make purchases and pay transit fares with a tap of their handsets on contactless readers. Before then, the operator will reportedly launch a preliminary trial before the end of the month, attaching contactless transit cards to the back of conventional handsets. These cards won’t be connected to the electronics of the handsets. The full NFC trial would allow the operator to connect the payment and ticketing applications to the phones and perhaps support the applications over the network. The operator, located in Sichuan province, has been allowing subscribers to make some purchases at a limited number of stores, cinemas and vending machines using SMS text messaging. But with NFC-equipped handsets, users can more quickly buy goods and also cover transit fares, the newspaper reports. The operator revealed it has already held a small field trial testing NFC in collaboration with a Chongqing bank and some convenience store chains. The bank would support the contactless phone trial later this month.
(source:card technology) |
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