Tag: nfc mobile

TIM, a Brazilian carrier, has announced that it is beginning the new program using near field communication.

Wireless carrier from Brazil, TIM, has just revealed that it is launching a mobile payment pilot service that will be based on NFC technology in order to test the effectiveness within the region.

The program is running as a part of a partnership with Banco Itaú, a bank in Brazil.

It is also working with MasterCard, in addition to Redecard (a point of sale manufacturer) and Gemalto, which is a digital security provider. This joint venture pilot project will include a small beta testing group as well as the participation of 100 Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo restaurants.

The carrier has explained that they wish to learn more about the use and behaviors around NFC technology.

This pilot will help them to get to know the way that consumers wish to use NFC technology, what their expectations may be and how it works for restaurants. It will also provide the opportunity to train their employees internally and observe the type of challenges that they may expect as a result of a more extensive rollout.

Based on the results that they experience due throughout the length of the pilot program, TIM has said that it is considering expanding the use of NFC technology enabled mobile payments. This could mean that if the program is successful, the nearly 70 million subscribers at that company will have access to the service as soon as the second half of this year.

According to the TIM Brazil CMO, Roger Solé, “TIM has innovation as a strategic pillar and, once again, comes out ahead with the test of a technology that promises to be an important evolution of mobile. This partnership with Itau and our quest to evaluate the NFC model demonstrates our concern to offer solutions that bring more convenience to customers.”

The NFC technology enabled credit cards will be MasterCard branded. These will be used by the few participants in the pilot program. The over-the air account provisioning will be supplied by Gemalto. They will also be providing their well respected services management solutions. MasterCard PayPass tech will be used for making payments at the restaurant points of sale.

Many companies are adopting this close range connectivity tech for new and surprising reasons.

Although NFC technology has been receiving the largest amount of attention due to the many massive attempts being made to introduce it to the mobile payments sphere, companies are also finding a number of other unique and helpful uses.

In fact, it is expected that payments may end up being one of the lesser uses.

At a recent large electronics show, several companies – including the event itself – applied NFC technology in a range of different ways. These chips were unveiled in numerous devices and were used for many different purposes. According to the Broadcom CEO, Scott McGregor, “NFC really simplifies things.” His company is a chipmaker that sees considerable value in this tech. He added that “The most advanced technology is stifled if it’s not easy to use. … NFC plays a very valuable role in simplifying user interfaces for consumer products.”

NFC technology is now being used for everything from payments to coupons, tickets, press releases and other data exchanges.

While the focus is primarily placed on mobile payments through NFC technology that would allow smartphones to be used at a point of sale in order to complete a purchase by tapping the device against a reader, the world isn’t quite there yet. It is still quite rare for point of sale terminals to be equipped with readers, which significantly limits the use of the chips, even among those who would be interested and have enabled smartphones.

However, recently, new consumer electronics are being launched that include NFC technology for whole new reasons. Enabled devices aren’t just smartphones anymore. Instead, they include televisions, speakers, refrigerators, cameras, and even business cards. Panasonic, for example, has added a chip to its rice cookers.

This is considerably expanding the possibilities connected with NFC technology. Clearly, it is not simply a one trick pony, and electronics companies are taking it seriously. Though many still expect that it will soon experience explosive use through smartphones, it is evident that device manufacturers of all kinds intend to try to take advantage of its benefits in many new and exciting ways.