NFC project to give new meaning to mobile phone services globally

What if everyday life was enmeshed with mobile phones
mobile phones? That is exactly what
France's recently kicked off near field communication (
NFC) project is trying to
achieve. The government-backed Nice project-which involves four mobile
operators, at least two banks and the city's transit operator-will enable
subscribers to use their phones to pay fares of buses and trams, make purchases
in some stores and tap smart posters for updated transit schedules and tourist
information.

The four mobile operators-Orange-France, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and NRJ
Mobile-will put around 4,000 NFC phones on sale for subscribers in Nice
initially. The phones will be the NFC version of the popular, though sub-3G,
touch-screen phone-the Samsung (S5230) Player One. The phone, nicknamed as
Player One 'cityzi' for this project, will store secure applications in SIM
cards that the telcos issue with a standard connection to NFC chips in the
phones. 'Cityzi' is the brand and acceptance mark that the organizers have
chosen for NFC in France.

Organizers, who officially launched the project, see it as a prelude to a
national rollout which could begin in the Paris region where the transit
authority STIF has committed to rolling out NFC based transit ticketing in 2011.

Besides paying bus and tram fares, subscribers will be able to buy transit
tickets over the air, including making purchases of up to 10 Euros ($12.40)
directly from their operators, which will put the charges on the subscribers'
phone bills. Retail payment is also part of the launch, although merchant
acceptance is limited for now and only two banks have publicized plans for
participation so far. Others are expected to follow later in the year.

To promote near field communication (NFC) usage, Orange is offering the first
1,000 Cityzi pass customers a set of tags to Orange portal services (news,
weather, TV schedules, etc) and daily content (events, cinema programs, bus
timetables, etc). Therefore, the Orange customer can find out even before
leaving home using a pre-programmed app, what time there will be a bus at the
nearest stop on any chosen route.

Not to be left behind, the Indian branch of Citigroup has announced plans to
launch NFC-enabled mobile payment technology by December of this year. The
announcement follows the recent completion of the twenty-six weeks NFC payment
pilot project in Bengaluru featuring 3,000 customers, 250 merchant locations,
and nearly 50,000 contactless purchases. Citi partnered with Nokia and Vodafone
Essar to implement the pilot, but is currently waiting for multiple players to
invest in the required infrastructure for a complete rollout.

Madhura Mukherjee

madhurak@cybermedia.co.in