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French mobile operators and banks plan to expand Near Field Communication projects to two additional cities following a "precommercial launch" in Nice projected to start by March 2010. France's major telcos and banks hope to launch more NFC demonstration projects in Strasbourg and Caen, cities that already have tested NFC mobile payment, Jean-Jacques Antelme, president of the Association Européenne Payez Mobile, a group made up of France's largest banks and mobile operators, tells CardLine Global sister publication Cards&Payments. The trials in those two cities found that users liked the technology, which enables them to tap NFC phones for purchases at hundreds of merchant locations, he notes. "What we will do in Nice, we will expand that to Caen and Strasbourg," Antelme says. "But we will concentrate our efforts in Nice." Officials announced the planned NFC launch in Nice last month (CardLine Global, 22 May). Unlike the NFC trials in Strasbourg and Caen, mobile operators in Nice each will put an initial 1,000 NFC phones on sale in their shops. Besides a contactless bank-debit application, users also can pay for fares on buses and trams Veolia Transport runs and perhaps download coupons or other promotions by tapping their phones against chips in "smart" posters. Antelme, a payment-innovation executive at French bank Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, says banks will decide by early next month whether or when to take part in the Nice project. The association expects the payment applications banks issue in Nice will support either the MasterCard PayPass or the Visa payWave contactless payment application, along with specifications released last month by the Association Européenne Payez Mobile. Those specifications call for secure applications to reside on the SIM card mobile operators issue to subscribers. MasterCard Worldwide is closer than Visa Europe to endorsing those French mobile-payment specifications, Cards&Payments has learned. Roland Entz, Visa Europe general manager for relationship management in France, says he has not seen the specifications, although they are available for free download on the association's Web site. Following the launches in the three cities, French mobile-commerce players could decide how to expand NFC nationally, depending on their negotiations for sharing revenue and the availability of NFC phones.
