NFC Forum announces partnership with ETSI, global competition finalists

By Sarah Clark • • Updated • nfcw.com

The twenty companies on the shortlist for the titles of “The Best NFC Service of the Year” and “The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year” have been revealed…

UNDERSTANDING: The NFC Forum and ETSI will 'align their activities to help the NFC community to implement solutions that comply with specs developed by both organisations'
UNDERSTANDING: The NFC Forum and ETSI will 'align their activities to help the NFC community to implement solutions that comply with specs developed by both organisations'

The NFC Forum has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Under the terms of the agreement, the NFC Forum and ETSI will “align their activities to help the NFC community to implement solutions that comply with NFC-related specifications developed by both organisations,” says the NFC Forum.

ETSI develops globally-applicable IT standards for smart cards for mobile communications and other applications, standards for close range inductive data communications, for a variety of short range devices and for a range of other technologies.

As the two organisations continue to work towards the release of additional NFC-related specifications, the new agreement means they will coordinate their activities related to testing and product certification. The agreement will also enable the two organisations to exchange questions and answers regarding each other’s work and to better coordinate future endeavours.

“The work of the two organisations intersects at the point where specifications and standards development come together,” the organisations say. “The agreement ensures a high level of alignment between the two organisations.”

“When industry associations work hand-in-hand with standards bodies, it assures solutions providers that their products and services will reach the broadest possible market and work effectively around the world,” says the NFC Forum chairman Koichi Tagawa. “ETSI is one of the world’s premier standards bodies and we are pleased to partner with them.”

“ETSI is committed to ensure global interoperability and avoid duplication of work,” added ETSI’s director-general, Walter Weigel. “Hence, I am very happy about this MoU with the NFC Forum and I am confident that this collaboration will lead to many benefits for the industry and end users.”

Awards finalists

The NFC Forum has also announced the 20 finalists for its NFC Forum Global Competition 2009. In all, 52 contestants submitted entries from across the globe, representing 21 countries and four continents.

The ten finalists in the commercial track, competing for €5,000 and the title of “The Best NFC Service of the Year 2009” are:

The ten finalists in the Research Track, competing for €5,000 and the title of “The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2009” are:

“This year’s submissions prove that the true power of a technology can best be measured by its success in enabling new innovations,” says the NFC Forum’s Koichi Tagawa. “We at the NFC Forum are pleased to see that our finalists include many imaginative new NFC solutions for everything from location-based social networking to language learning, and from secure airline travel services to online banking authentication.”

Each of the finalists will give a presentation and live demonstration in a demo space at the WIMA NFC Developers Summit in Monaco on April 23.

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