GSMA calls for mobile payment handsets

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Near-field communication (NFC) tech to allow mobile payments should be built into handsets from the middle of next year, the GSM Association said, calling for manufacturers to bolster their adoption of the technology.

LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sagem and Samsung are all currently developing NFC-enabled phones.

Rob Conway, chief executive of the GSMA, said in a statement: "There is no doubt that there is a huge latent demand for a large variety of mobile transaction services, of which there is universal interest in proximity payments, as trials across the world have already shown.

“But this will require device manufacturers to make sure that the vast majority of commercially available handsets incorporate the Single Wire Protocol and Near Field Communications features as standard,” he added. GSMA supports the “single wire protocol” interface – a middleware layer that allows a NFC chipset in the handset to communicate with a SIM card or circuit card.

Trials in France showed 90 per cent of users found the payment system easy-to-use, with most saying they would recommend it to friends and family, the GSMA said. Some 80 per cent of shops using the tech said the speed of payments was a strong selling point.

More trials are currently underway, backed up by pay-and-wave cards from MasterCard and Visa.

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