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The first phones supporting both the Mifare and FeliCa contactless protocols used in transit ticketing schemes worldwide could become available in the first half of 2010, according to Austria-based Moversa, the joint venture between contactless chipmakers NXP Semiconductors, based in the Netherlands, and Japan's Sony Corp. The "universal" secure chips for Near Field Communication-enabled phones also will support standard contactless technology used in credit, debit and prepaid payment schemes, Moversa says. The venture plans to demonstrate a prototype of the technology later this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The phone will carry a payment application supporting PayPass from MasterCard Worldwide, along with a prepaid application using FeliCa of Japan and a Mifare-based transit application similar to those common in Europe and parts of Asia. At the show, Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo plans to demonstrate its first NFC phone that also supports major standard contactless technologies along with Mifare and FeliCa (CardLine Global, 30 Jan.). DoCoMo has rolled out more than 30 million contactless wallet phones in Japan that support only the proprietary FeliCa technology, used mainly in Japan. DoCoMo's phone prototype, from a Japanese handset maker, will be separate from the phone Moversa itself will be showing at the congress, a Nokia 6212 NFC device. Secure chips embedded in both the Nokia and Japanese phones will come from Moversa. The interest from DoCoMo for the Moversa chips is important because it could signal that the mobile firm wants to introduce NFC in Japan. That could reduce the firm's costs for handsets because DoCoMo and its competitors now buy their phones mainly from smaller Japanese manufacturers. "The Japanese (operators) don't enjoy economies of scale driven by tier-one global (handset) players," Guus Frericks, co-president of Moversa, tells CardLine Global sister publication Cards&Payments. The joint venture had hoped to have its first chip samples at the end of 2008. That was delayed six months because of design delays. Then volume production could begin during the first half of 2010. "We always knew this is going to be a long-term strategy. Although the market has been delayed, we're still convinced about the opportunities and pursue that without change," says Frericks.
