Date: 31/01/2007

New consortium is formed for speedy deployment of Near Field Communications (NFC)

The bill payments at shopping malls to issuing bus and train tickets can happen without passing any cash or swiping credit card, it's through communication of transactions from contactless payment card or through mobile phones installed with such devices and system. The technology driving this field is called Near Field Communications (NFC). This means communication with in a short distance of few meters. In Europe already many industries are employing contactless applications in transport ticketing. Your phone will become your cash wallet.
To drive the standards and increase the speed of deployment of these technologies; a consortium is formed by European companies. The members of this consortium are,
Motorola, NXP Semiconductors, Auto-ID-Lab St. Gallen, Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Bull, Baker&McKenzie, Consorzio Triveneto S.P.A., Consult Hyperion, Deloitte, Fornax, Libri, Safepay Systems, Sun Microsystems, T-Systems, as well as the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Budapest Tech John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics.

The technology is not a big issue for NFC, however the issues such as security, business rules, specs and standards will be addressed by this consortium and bring a single platform for easy adoption and implementation.