Singapore’s StarHub is stepping up its efforts to drive wider adoption of NFC mobile payment by partnering with Shaw Theatres to offer a movie ticketing service.
The new service will be available on April 6 and allows thousands of StarHub subscribers to browse and buy movie tickets on the go via a NFC-compatible smartphone, StarHub said in a statement Thursday.
Customers can pick up their tickets by tapping their smartphone on an NFC ticket collection reader at any of the seven Shaw Theatres box offices in Singapore.
To use the service, StarHub customers need to get a NFC SIM card and subscribe to the Singaporean cellco’s SmartWallet mobile wallet service. They can then download the free SmartWallet app from Google Play app store, the telco added.
To lure customers, StarHub will wave the one-time fees for the NFC SIM card, activation of SmartWallet service and preloaded NFC payment cards such as the ez-link purse and MasterCard’s FEVO.
The new service is available through StarHub’s mobile wallet app, SmartWallet, which was first launched last August. The app works on six NFC Android smartphones including Samsung Galaxy Express, which will be on sale this Saturday at service launch.
The SmartWallet service allows StarHub mobile customers to pay for meals, groceries and taxi rides, as well as browse, download and redeem virtual coupons.
Yeong Mun-Ling, VP of business strategy at StarHub, said customer response of the SmartWallet service has been positive since the launch and the company is encouraged by the continued growth in sign-up rate.