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UK: Everything Everywhere announces first commercial NFC rollout during Q2 2011

Categories: NFC
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 2:03 AM

UK mobile operator Everything Everywhere, which is a joint venture between Deutsche Telecom’s T-Mobile and France Telecom’s Orange, announced a commercial launch of a nationwide contactless mobile payments scheme in Q2 2011. The launch builds on top of a long-standing partnership between Orange and UK credit card firm Barclaycard. Orange described the launch as the UK’s “first commercial launch” of the technology that will allow user to pay for goods at participating merchants by waving an NFC-enabled mobile device against a contactless reader.

Over 40,000 stores in the country will be ready to accept contactless payments at launch, including retail outlets such as Pret a Manger, EAT, Little Chef and Co-Op.

There are already 11.6 million contactless credit and debit cards in circulation, of which over 10 million have been issued by Barclaycard and its parent bank – Barclays.

The only problem may be in the wider availability of NFC-enabled handsets, but that’s likely to change with more devices getting the capability that’s already featured in Google’s Nexus S. It is wildly rumored that the iPhone 5 will support contactless payments and we assume more handset makers will jump on board in no time, as well…

[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

  • LSH

    Would someone please explain…where is the money that is being debited from the consumer? Is it in a bank account (e.g. checking account)? Is it in some other type of account and, if so, how is it funded? Is it a omnibus asset account like prepaid cards?

  • Dan.K.

    you can link your phone to your checking account and it comes out of there, i hope that helps LSH