Singapore's Gemalto-led consortium is ready to launch mobile payment services using NFC technology.
The other partners are Citibank, DBS, EZ-Link, and all three mobile operators in Singapore -- M1, SingTel, StarHub.
A number of NFC handset models from Samsung and Sony have been certified for use with the suite of services to be launched. More NFC handsets will be offered by the mobile operators in the coming months.
Hosted in Gemalto’s Trusted Services Management data center in Singapore and supported by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the implementation of the interoperable NFC infrastructure marks a milestone in the call-for-collaboration awarded in October 2011.
The consortium will be rolling out three credit, pre-paid and stored-value payment services through NFC-enabled mobile phones in the coming weeks, with respective partners announcing the launch details of their specific services including how consumers can apply for and make use of these NFC services.
Consumers will have a choice of multiple contactless payment products on their NFC-enabled phones, and businesses can deploy new innovative and secured mobile services in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
In terms of security, the NFC infrastructure, SIM cards and handsets have gone through certifications by international payment schemes such as MasterCard and Visa, as well as by industry standards bodies such as GlobalPlatform and EMVCo where applicable.