Mobile NFC explodes as the biggest operators announce launches

Mobile NFC explodes as the biggest operators announce launches
Published on Friday, December 17th by Cian O' Sullivan
If there was any doubt that Near Field Communications (NFC) was going to be a massive industry in 2011, let it be dispelled now. This week has seen some of the biggest operators in the world announcing massive support for the technology.

What’s NFC?

Near Field Communications is a wireless technology that allows your phone to exchange information securely with other NFC devices over very short distances – usually around 10cm. The uses of the technology are as limitless as human entrepreneurship, but it has been slow to take off because of the limited number of NFC-enabled phones on the market. But as the number of NFC devices has increased, so have the number of services being brought to market. And now we’re seeing some true mass take up through a series of massive mobile operators?

What are the operators doing?

First of all is Isis. This is a massive NFC-based mobile payments platform. It would allow you to use your phone as a debit/credit card – by simply holding your phone close to an NFC reader in a store or retailer. The ISIS platform is being developed through a co-operation between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless – giving it an initial potential customer base of around 200 million.

Then there’s Orange. The France-based global operator has announced it will be rolling out NFC services during 2011, in the majority of the countries in which it has a presence. In order to ensure that there is uptake of these services, it is currently working with the manufacturers that supply it to make sure that over 50% of the devices it sells have NFC capability.

What we think?

While the majority of the applications people think of when considering NFC revolves around payments, there are other uses. Some of the more interesting ones include gaining access to public transit, or opening your hotel room. But once the systems are in place, we’ll start to see the interesting services roll out. What’s important is that both device manufacturers and operators are starting to push NFC in a major way.