The Government of Victoria may drop the problem-plagued myki smart ticketing system altogether, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Called “a mess” by Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder, the $1.35 billion system has weathered technical issues and rising costs on top of a three year delay. Accounting firm Deloitte says that the cost of cutting […]

Research in Motion (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie has revealed that the next generation of BlackBerry smart phones will feature built-in NFC chips, according to Marketnews.ca. Balsillie made the official announcement last week during his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, though leaked specs of several upcoming BalckBerry models confirming NFC have been out […]

Watchdata has announced that more than 2.5 million units of its SIMpass mobile proximity payment solution have been delivered in China. SIMpass is an NFC bridging solution for that enables a normal mobile phone to perform a variety of contactless functions, including payment, banking, loyalty and access control. According to Watchdata, there are now more […]

NXP Semiconductors and Oberthur Technologies have signed licensing agreement enabling Oberthur to integrate NXP’s MIFARE technology into its SIM cards. Under the agreement, Oberthur will expand its existing UICC product portfolio to add MIFARE DESFire and MIFARE Plus. According to NXP, MIFARE is the most widespread contactless smart card technology in the world. Furthermore, NXP […]

ISIS, the new mobile payments venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, has announced the recruitment of U.S. merchants, according to Digital Transaction News. ISIS’s head of sales Jim Stapleton told DTN that an unspecified number of merchants are now officially on board with the program, but declined to reveal any names as of yet. […]

German automotive supplier Continental has teamed up with NXP Semiconductors to create a concept car built on the seamless integration of NFC technology. Introduced at the Mobile World Congress last week, the car uses NFC to enable drivers access to a variety of new interactions. For starters, the driver can open their car door by […]

UK-based supermarket chain TESCO has launched a contactless payment card pilot, according to express.co.uk. Since December, trial participants in the UK have been able to pay for transactions of £15 of less with a wave of a contactless debit or credit card at the register. According to Express, Royal Bank of Scotland and payment processing […]

DeviceFidelity has announced that its In2Pay microSD solution will be supported on a variety of new smart phones, including the Blackberry Tour 9630, the Android-based Samsung Epic 4G and the Samsung Fascinate, Mesmerize and Showcase models. DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay is a plug and play mobile contactless solution that transforms smart phones into interactive mobile payment devices. […]

France’s Twinlinx is demonstrating its MyMax NFC payment sticker at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, according to techradar.com. Introduced in France last year, MyMax gives any Bluetooth-enabled smart phone NFC functionality for a fraction of the cost of an NFC phone, allowing users to make contactless payments by simply slapping the £21 sticker […]

ID solutions provider Morpho has partnered with Simlink to launch a new key fob that equips any Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone with NFC technology. The key fob contains a Morpho NFC-enabled SIM card with a secure application that hooks up to a mobile phone via Wi-Fi technology provided by Simlink. “Equipped in this way, the […]