Google Inc. is joining the NFC Forum, a nonprofit association that sets technical specifications for how businesses use Near Field Communication technology for payments applications and other services.
As a principal member, Google can appoint a voting representative to the organization’s technical, marketing and compliance committees and working groups, forum officials noted in a March 31 press release. Principal members also may take part in the group’s testing and certification program through their own testing labs.
NFC chips allow for two-way communication between devices in close proximity. Mobile-phone manufacturers, wireless carriers and payment networks are using them in anticipation of services that will allow consumers to pay for purchases by waving their smartphones in front of a merchant’s terminal.
The Wakefield, Mass.-based NFC Forum formed in 2004 and works on setting standards for how the industry may use NFC chips in hardware and software so that they are compatible with different developers’ products.
Google is working with MasterCard Worldwide, an NFC sponsor member, and Citigroup Inc. on a mobile payments system based on NFC, according to news reports.
A spokesperson for Google could not be reached immediately for comment.
