Dutch postpone NFC payments venture to 2013
02 December, 2011
category: NFC
The Netherlands will have to wait another year for the EU to approve its nationwide mobile payments scheme, according to the Register.
A consortium comprised of six banks and telecoms – including ABN AMRO, ING, KPN, Rabobank, T-Mobile and Vodafone – originally intended to launch NFC-enabled mobile payments in 2012, but has now reset the date for 2013 – and without the participation of T-Mobile.
According to the Register, T-Mobile feels that the lack of proximity payments infrastructure in the Netherlands will make it difficult to get a good return on its investment.
The remaining partners plan to invest heavily in creating this infrastructure, relying on transaction fees to cover the expenses.
T-Mobile, which is involved in the ISIS m-payments joint venture in the U.S., could still rejoin the project later, but it will not be a part of the submission to the EU nor the subsequent roll out in 2013, reports the Register.
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