Orange, Barclaycard to launch contactless mobile payment this summer
27 January, 2011
category: NFC
Orange is teaming up with Barclaycard to deliver the UK’s first commercial contactless mobile payments service.
Set to launch early this summer, the service will be available to customers of Everything Everywhere, the mobile network formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile.
In order to use the new service, customers must have a Barclaycard or Orange credit card account and a handset with a built-in NFC chip. Then it’s just a matter of waving the phone in front of a reader at the point of sale to complete the purchase.
According to Barclaycard, there are currently 40,000 stores in the UK equipped to handle mobile contactless transactions.
The system will operate on MasterCard’s PayPass point of sale technology, and Gemalto will provide its Trusted Service Management (TSM) to securely distribute and manage the contactless service.
Gerry McQuade, chief development officer at Everything Everywhere, comments: “This is the beginning of a revolution in how we pay for things on the high street. It’s a cultural shift that is as important as the launch of the personal credit card or ATMs.”