GSM Association rallies Industry heavy-hitters for eWallet Standards

Nokia (NYSE: NOK), LG, and Samsung have teamed up with AT&T (NYSE: T), NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), and KTF, in conjunction with financial institutions like Mastercard, towards a Near Field Communication (NFC)-based eWallet initiative, dubbed “Pay-Buy Mobile.” The GSM Association has garnered the support of these industry heavy-weights for a standard set of NFC chips, sourced from NXP and Sony, to be used in mobile phones – essentially turning the phone into an electronic wallet. The NFC chipset will be combined with a SIM/Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) card to keep financial info nice and secure – and some transactions will even require a PIN, adding another layer of security.

The day of the eWallet is upon us, people! Come this October, the streets will be littered with traditional wallets, as everyone adopts this NFC-enabled cell phones without a care for potential security issues.

via: gsmworld