WORLD FIRST: Singapore, a nation of 4.9m people, will be the first to establish a central trusted third party to allow a fully interoperable NFC ecosystem

Singapore has become the first country to give the go ahead for the creation of a central Trusted Third Party (TTP) designed to deliver a fully inter-operable, multi-application national NFC ecosystem.

The creation of the national TTP is being managed by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), a Singapore government agency that formed a roundtable group of banks, mobile network operators and transit companies in January 2008 with a view to putting together a national plan for the introduction of NFC.

Members include MobileOne, SingTel, StarHub, DBS, OCBC, UOB, BCS, EZ-Link, NETS, MasterCard and Visa plus the Ministry of Finance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Land Transport Authority.

Now they have agreed to collaborate on the establishment of an interoperable, commercial deployment of NFC in Singpore, based around the creation of a TTP tasked with ensuring the subscribers of any mobile network operator will have access to the full range of NFC services offered by any service provider.

One of the key reasons for going ahead with a trusted third party approach was the results of a consultancy study conducted for IDA by Consult Hyperion last year that concluded a fully interoperable NFC environment would generate a market size approximately eight times that of a non-interoperable environment.

"In the early stage of NFC adoption," says IDA, "the annual revenue from NFC mobile payments and advertising alone will amount to S$60 million for Singapore. With the maturity of NFC technology and services, the potential annual revenue will grow as more NFC services are deployed."

The TTP will "act as a neutral party delivering interoperability by providing a single point of contact for all banks, payment providers and telcos," says IDA. "This would help to eliminate the duplication of infrastructure and satisfy the trust requirements of all parties for payment services."

Once established, the TTP "will lay the foundation for the development of innovative NFC services in the near future," it explains.

"IDA has been playing an active role in identifying opportunities in leveraging new technologies and enabling platforms for Singapore to grow and innovate," says IDA CEO Ronnie Tay. "To realise its fullest potential, IDA sees interoperability as a key success factor for NFC and is pleased that all the NFC Roundtable members share the same conviction. Beyond transit and mobile payments, IDA will continue to work with the industry to support development of innovative services to create a rich user experience for consumers and businesses".

IDA will now act as the project leader for the establishment of Singapore's Trusted Third Party, which is expected to be run as a commercial entity, and will be responsible for making sure Singapore's system complies with the full range of existing contactless standards and infrastructures such as Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass and Singapore's own Cepas transit standard.

The NFC Roundtable's member banks, operators and government agencies have been quick to show their support for the project — although it is clear that there are strong differences between each of the players in terms of how quickly they plan to move ahead:

Silvester Prakasam, fare system director at the Land Transport Authority, said:

"The Land Transport Authority, which takes an inclusive approach to public transport fare payment method, is open to working with the industry on new methods of payment such as NFC-enabled mobile phones as a service enhancement for commuters."

Karen Kooi, acting CEO at MobileOne:

"We believe interoperability is key to the commercial viability of NFC and we fully support IDA's vision of a truly inter-operable multi-application NFC environment for Singapore. Contactless technology paired with mobile handsets will open up rich possibilities for a wide variety of value-added services that mobile customers can use in their daily transactions."

Ying Lai Chang, vice president of consumer products at SingTel Mobile:

"NFC technology on mobile devices will bring about a brand new dimension to how customers will use their mobile devices. The benefits and convenience of NFC are evident based on the feedback received from our recent trial. We hope that an interoperable NFC infrastructure will encourage mobile device manufacturers to bring forward their production schedules of NFC compatible devices."

Chua Siew Ling, vice president of payment & transaction at StarHub:

"This initiative is an interesting development for the NFC industry in Singapore. We look forward to working with IDA and the various NFC partners to see how this collaboration might move forward."

Gordon Cooper, regional head of mobile payment (Asia Pacific) at Visa:

"As a company built on the premise that interoperable, network-based services offer the greatest value for consumers, merchants, and other stakeholders in the payments value chain, we welcome efforts by the IDA to facilitate the deployment of Trusted Third Party infrastructure in Singapore for NFC services."

Nicholas Lee, executive director at EZ-Link:

"We are confident, judging from the positive feedback following the largest NFC phone trial we conducted with StarHub, that NFC services will be positively received by mobile phone users through the collective efforts of the IDA and industry players like StarHub, phone manufacturers, ourselves and other retailers.

Like the ez-link card, the mobile phone is the other ubiquitous device Singaporeans carry. Hence we are excited to support the incorporation of the ezlink purse and our other applications in support of the NFC drive in Singapore."

Rahul Shingal, vice president of mobile & internet services at NETS:

"We believe this would usher in an ecosystem of interoperability and truly create a healthy environment for the usage of NFC. It would bring technology and business value to the banks and telcos, convenience to the consumers and wider payment choices for our merchant's customers and faster transaction time."

Patrick Chew, senior vice president of consumer financial services at OCBC Bank:

"Through OCBC Bank's Mobile Banking service, customers have enjoyed the convenience and innovation of banking on their mobile phones. With changing lifestyles, we believe more people will appreciate the benefits of NFC as a form of mobile payment."

Simon Song, senior vice president at DBS Cards & Unsecured Loans:

"NFC will be a trend of the near future as youths and young adults today become increasingly acquainted with contactless payment tools. They will be generating an increasing demand for technological and communication equipment that is multi-functional.

We recognise the tremendous opportunities NFC presents but also acknowledge the immediate challenges in terms of cost and system readiness. Nonetheless, the efforts of IDA and members of the roundtable to formulate an effective and realistic implementation plan is most encouraging."

Nelson Boon, head of business processes and administration in personal financial services at United Overseas Bank:

"We welcome the possibilities that another customer touchpoint provided by the NFC technology can bring and look forward to tapping the technology for our customers' benefit. As a bank offering quality products and services to our customers, we are open to consider it as an option for our customers if viable."

And David Chan, vice president of operations and advanced payment products for south east Asia at MasterCard Worldwide, said:

"MasterCard recognizes the enormous opportunity presented by mobile commerce, especially in a market such as Singapore where there is almost universal mobile phone ownership. People carry their mobile phones with them everywhere and the evolution of these devices into "mobile purses" which can be used to conduct transactions and access services is added-value for consumers.

MasterCard's PayPass contactless payment solution is at the forefront of this technology. PayPass offers consumers a convenient alternative to cash that allows for purchases to be completed quickly, securely and easily. Consumers no longer need to fumble for cash and coins. Users simply tap their PayPass-enabled phone, card, or device on the PayPass reader at participating merchants and they are on their way."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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WE WANT IT NOW! The GSMA wants all new mobiles NFC enabled from next year

The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, has called for full NFC functionality — including the standardised 'single wire protocol' interface — to be built into commercially available mobile handsets from mid-2009.

At a meeting in Macau this week, timed to coincide with the organisation's Mobile Asia Congress, the association's board came out in full support of the ETSI-endorsed Single Wire Protocol (SWP) standard as the best way of providing the interface between a handset's Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC or, more commonly, SIM) and the embedded NFC chipset within the handset.

The endorsement follows a series of trials involving nine mobile operators that have been taking place in eight different countries (Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Turkey and the US) under the GSMA's UICC-based Pay-Buy-Mobile banner. Further pilots are planned across 14 countries by 15 mobile operators.

The move comes after the GSMA issued a detailed device requirement document to a wide range of vendors and suppliers in July. The association says 37 key players responded, giving a clear picture of the core requirements for any SWP/NFC device.

"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," says Rob Conway, the organisation's chief executive. "We are committed to ensuring that mobile payment services are delivered as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. 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."

"Doing so would enable the industry to leverage significant economies of scale and ensure greater accessibility of NFC services for mobile users," he added.

"This call for handsets is supported by recent operator trial results which indicate a growing consumer demand for mobile payment services," says the GSMA:

In Taiwan, in a trial of over 200 users, FarEasTone found that 90% of people felt positive toward to this new service. 80% of people were satisfied that the service is secure, and 40% said they would switch their monthly spending to a mobile credit card service.

Seven banks and four mobile operators — including Orange and SFR — involved in the "Payez Mobile" trial in France have announced the results of trials conducted with almost 500 sales outlets and nearly 1000 triallists. Over 90% of triallists said they found contactless mobile payment convenient, fast, and easy to use. In addition, 94% declared that they would recommend it to their friends and family. Merchants welcomed the possibility of offering to their customers an innovative payment solution, with over 80% saying they appreciated the speed and cutting-edge appeal of mobile contactless payment.

Equally, in Korea, SKT and KTF found that m-transportation was very popular with users, and this is likely to translate to other mobile payment services. Approximately 450,000 users of the "T-money" service were quick to adopt the service as it is convenient and compatible with existing readers. According to KTF's survey, 85% of m-transportation users indicated satisfaction levels were 'very high'. 85% of them believe that using a contactless mobile phone is much more convenient than getting their wallet out to use public transportation, and would continue to use the mobile service. "T-money" attracts users not only for the public metro and bus, but also for small transactions such as buying goods from convenient stores by simply tapping on the contactless readers.

Both MasterCard and Visa are supporting the trials with their PayPass and PayWave contactless payments services and, in September 2008, the GSMA signed a memorandum of understanding to share information withEMVCo, the international payments organisation operated by JCB International, MasterCard and Visa.

On the handset front, Nokia already has a commercially available NFC-enabled phone in the form of the 6131 NFC and LG has just released a prototype, the KU380-NFC. Motorola, Sagem and Samsung are also developing phones for NFC-enabled mobile payment services, the GSMA says.

"Gemalto, G&D and KEBT are among the UICC card suppliers supporting NFC-enabled mobile payment services," says the GSMA, and "Vivotech and Harex are among the companies developing NFC-enabled readers that support NFC-enabled mobile payment services."

Senior representatives of mobile operators around the world have stepped up to the plate to add their individual endorsements to the GSMA's call for handsets:

"As one of the first operators to trial mobile payments, we've seen first-hand the willingness of consumers to adapt to this new payment channel which is very much dependent on the availability of NFC handsets and the associated ecosystem," says Kris Rinne, senior vice president of architecture and planning at AT&T. "We hope that the GSMA's delivery of a consolidated set of minimum requirements will accelerate the worldwide delivery of NFC-enabled handsets to the market."

"We observed great potential for mobile payment services through T-money. We believe it is changing the behaviour of users and expect it to see significantly increasing demand over time. Supportive actions and collaborations with banks and especially handset vendors will help to speed up this demand," added Sang Ryul Lee, VP of the Transaction Business Group at KTF.

"Orange has run trials in France, Spain and the UK which show a consistent appeal to consumers in all countries for SIM-based, operator managed, mobile NFC services," commented Mung-Ki Woo, VP of payment and contactless at Orange. "For Orange, mass deployment is now mainly dependent on handset manufacturers providing a large range of adequate handsets."

"As Malaysia's leading mobile operator, Maxis is very enthusiastic about enabling mobile payments via NFC and leveraging the growing contact-less payment infrastructure in Malaysia," says Dr Nikolai Dobberstein, head of products and new businesses at Maxis Communications. "We are collaborating with strong partners on this initiative, Maybank and Visa International, and our focus is to establish a mobile NFC eco-system for commercialization which provides Malaysian customers with accessible & easy to use mobile payments."

"We are pleased to be part of this pioneering and innovative project trial as it will further simplify payment transactions and in the long run, help spur the growth of mobile commerce our country. Meanwhile, we are anticipating that vendors will incorporate NFC functionalities as a default feature in their handsets so more people can enjoy the technology," said Napoleon L Nazareno, president and CEO of Smart Communications in the Philippines.

"Telstra recently conducted a contactless mobile payments pilot with Australia's National Australia Bank and Visa and early results from the trial are positive," added Telstra's Ross Fielding. "Findings from an online survey of participants in the pilot found a high propensity to use the service and further advocate its benefits to friends and family."

And Cenk Serdar, chief VAS officer at Turkcell, commented: "We see potential in the market for NFC based mobile payment services, which can both be seen from our customers and banks' feedbacks. We believe that the customers may gradually adapt our services once the supporting handsets are on the market."

The full list of mobile operators taking part in the Pay Buy Mobile initiative also includes Brasil Telecom, Celcom, Chunghwa Telecom, CMCC, EITC, Etisalat, Far Eastone, GlobeTel, IMC Island, Kall, KPN, MCI, Meteor, Mobicom, MobilKom Austria, Mobitel d. d., MTN, MTS, NTT DoCoMo, Partner, Pelephone, Rogers Wireless, SFR, SingTel, SingTel Optus, SK Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Starhub, Swisscom, TDC, Telecom Italia, Telefonica O2, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Vimpelcom, Vodafone, Wind and Zain.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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