This week is fast becoming the mobile contactless payment week, in fact we may just ask the government to rename it this time next year. First Google announces that it’s adding near field communication (NFC) to their next mobile the Nexus S. Then the US networks form ISIS an NFC coalition to get NFC going, and now Nokia, has confirmed that it will activate the contactless payment technology that is already in its C7 handset in 2011.
The phone launched last month – if you missed it, it’s probably because it was hidden in the launch of the N8 – includes NFC hardware, and will allow customers to purchase items by swiping their phone across an electronic reader.
Nokia has said to a French magazine Teknologik that it will produce a software upgrade early next year that will switch on the dormant NFC chip, allowing the phone to make payments. However as we all know that’s just half of the story, to make payments there also has to be a bank, and places to spend the payments.
At the time of writing Nokia would not confirm which financial and retail brands it would be partnering with to enable use of the technology. However, if you were to take a good guess about the partners you’d probably say that it’s probably Visa Europe who partnered them back in 2008.
To read more on NFC and Nokia read this Near Field Telecomunications World piece
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