T-Mobile, better known as Deutsche Telekom, has always been an innovative operator when it comes to adopting the latest technologies. They may spend less on advertising than the other guuys, but that’s money better spent on actual infrastructure gear. Recently T-Mobile discussed how they’re going to roll out near field communication (NFC) technology to several of the markets they service. By the end of this year Germany and Poland will get NFC, and while they’ll be relatively few handsets on the market that support it, the Samsung Bada powered Wave 578 will most likely be the device that a majority of consumers interested in mobile payments will snap up. In Germany T-Mobile has also announced that they’ll be working together with Vodafone and O2 to offer consumers M-Pesa, an SMS based mobile payments service popular in Africa. If that actually happens, then consider it one of the first times that a technology/service from a poor country has successfully transitioned to becoming something that’s coveted in a rich nation.
Americans will have to wait until 2012 for NFC to come, and that’s when Isis launches, the joint venture that’s comprised of T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, that’ll use the existing Discover Card infrastructure to handle wireless payments. That’s a huge blow to everyone who has been saying that this will be the year NFC takes off. Guess not. Next year we’ll also see T-Mobile bringing mobile payments to the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, where the operator has signed agreements to work with the local banks.
When it comes to who will actually handle the payments, T-Mobile told Bloomberg they’re open to many options, including partnering with existing payment processors, banks, or they may even turn themselves into a financial institution if need be. Whatever they end up doing, one thing is certain: they want to be the first.