Samsung and Visa team up for NFC

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Samsung has become the latest mobile maker to jump on the Near Field Communications (NFC) bandwagon, the company confirmed this week.

It is set to launch a handset with an NFC-enabled SIM card for touch payments in time for the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2012.

The contactless payment technology will be provided by Visa. Both firms are sponsors of the games, taking place in London next year.

“Visa, like Samsung, shares the vision of leveraging our Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship to leave a lasting legacy in the market for banks, retailers, mobile operators and consumers,” said Peter Ayliffe, chief executive (CEO) of Visa Europe.

“We are not only breaking new ground for Olympic partnerships, we are committed to enabling consumers to connect with mobile and contactless payments technology for 2012 and beyond.”

Samsung has dabbled with contactless technology before, launching a year-long trial in Nice in 2010 to get 3,000 residents to use NFC-enabled mobile phones.

“Samsung is striving for long term change in the way we use mobile payments,” said Seokpil Kim, CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe.

“In London next year, we regard the greatest show on earth as the perfect opportunity to showcase how this technology can make a positive difference to people’s lives.”

Details on the handset are scarce but Samsung confirmed in would launch in the UK first, before being rolled out across Europe, then the rest of the world, as more countries take on NFC technology.

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