Singapore’s telecommunication regulator, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, has issued a “call for collaboration” seeking participation in the deployment of an interoperable Near Field Communication payments infrastructure in the country.
The call, issued Nov. 18, will close on Feb. 1, a spokesperson for the authority tells PaymentsSource.
“What we are doing is setting the infrastructure toward the development of an NFC payment system in Singapore,” the spokesperson says. “This system will also be dependent on industry [players] such as banks, telecom operators and payment-service providers coming in to develop and provide services.”
The interoperable system would be open, so consumers could use it regardless of which bank or telco they use, the spokesperson adds.
The agency plans to award responsibility for creating the “Trusted Third Party Infrastructure” in May or June to a consortium comprising a combination of companies that would include an infrastructure operator, banks, payment-service providers, mobile-network operators and secure-element issuers, the spokesperson says. Implementing the infrastructure could take up to eight months, and the target launch would occur in the first quarter if 2012 with at least two NFC mobile-payment services, she says.
Three additional NFC mobile-payment services and three value-added NFC services “will be progressively rolled out within 12 months of the initial launch,” the spokesperson says. “The authority has set a stretch target of NFC adoption by 30,000 subscribers within the first two years.”
When the NFC services commence in early 2012, consumers could use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to pay for their purchases at retailers, restaurants and other locations that currently accept payment cards.
In separate news, MasterCard Worldwide and Gemalto NA this month in Singapore will begin testing the France-based chipmaker’s N-Flex technology, which will enable consumers to use their mobile phones as contactless-payment devices.
N-Flex is a wafer-thin, 2-inch piece of plastic that sticks to a mobile phone’s SIM card and wraps around the phone’s battery. Mobile-phone operators upload MasterCard’s PayPass contactless service into the SIM card.
As the industry waits for NFC-based technology to enter the market, several technology companies, including Gemalto, have teamed up with card issuers to launch contactless-payment products that work by integrating technology similar to NFC into existing mobile handsets (
NFC supports two-way communication with other NFC chips, enabling users to download coupons, discounts and rewards for redemption at the point of sale, and initiate payments.
MasterCard tapped customers of Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd. with StarHub mobile plans to participate in the trial, which will run for eight months, Gemalto said in a recent news release about the trial.
Selected participants will receive an electronic mailer from either the bank or StarHub with instructions on how to register online, Gemalto says. Consumers will then visit StarHub’s customer service center to have the N-Flex device inserted and mapped onto their SIM cards, Gemalto explains.
Once the N-Flex is installed, consumers may make payments with their mobile phones at all merchants accepting MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payments. Consumers also may embed their ez-link transportation card information into their phone to access public transportation, including trains and buses, according to Gemalto.
The service is set to officially launch in the second half of 2011.
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