Chinese operator giants back NFC

At the GSMA Mobile Asia Conference being held in Hong Kong, China Mobile and Unicom, two of China’s largest mobile operators have announced that they will be offering SIM-based NFC to nearly over 800 million connections in the country.
The GSMA this morning announced that 45nglobal mobile operators are now signed up to “support and implement” SIM-basednNFC services.

Pledging their support for the first time are China’s two largest mobilenoperators, China Mobile and China Unicom, which together account for nearly 800nmillion connections in the country.
“China Mobile is able to offer SIM-based NFC on an extremely large scalenand we have the experience, the technical infrastructure and trusted customerncare network to support and effectively stimulate the market,” said ChinanMobile’s Sha Yuejia.
Unicom’s Lu Yimin said that “we strongly support SIM-based NFCntechnology that can ensure contactless services are available to our consumers,nand will be interoperable and roam effectively wherever the consumer chooses tongo.”
The GSMA has separately published a set of industry specifications,nwhich define common handset APIs to support SIM-based NFC services.
“With the increasing deployment of commercial SIM-based NFC services inna range of markets worldwide, it is critical to embrace common standards thatnwill promote the global interoperability of services and acceleratentime-to-market,” commented Anne Bouverot, the GSMA’s Director General.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, nearly 1.5 billionnSIM-based NFC handsets will have been sold worldwide between 2010 and 2016,nsupporting transactions of more than US$50 billion globally over the samenperiod. In addition, ABI Research indicates that 85 percent of all new POSnterminals shipped in 2016 will be NFC-enabled.
In addition to China Mobile and China Unicom, the operators who havencommitted to SIM-based NFC include: América Móvil, AT&T, AVEA, Axiata,nAXIS, Bharti Airtel, Bouygues Telecom, CSL, Deutsche Telekom, ElisanCorporation, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du),nEtisalat, Everything Everywhere, Globe Telecom, KPN, KT Corporation, Maxis,nMobily, MTS, Orange, Proximus, Qtel Group, Rogers Communications, Saudi TelecomnCompany (STC), SFR, SK Telecom, Smart, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Telecom Italia, TelecomnNew Zealand, Telecom Slovenije, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor,nTeliaSonera, Telus, TMN, Turkcell, Verizon, VimpelCom, VIVA Bahrain andnVodafone Group.
ISIS,nthe US joint venture formed by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and VerizonnWireless to build a nationwide m-commerce network in the United States, alsonsupports SIM-based NFC.

*Article courtesy of Mobile World Live.
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