Nokia and China UnionPay launch NFC mobile payment trial in Shanghai
August 11, 2006
China IT & Telecom Report

Nokia and China UnionPay subsidiary UnionPay Merchant Services (UMS) recently launched an NFC (Near Field Communication) mobile payment trial at the NextAge department store in Shanghai.

UnionPay's loyalty card the 'Union Bonus', will be integrated in the NFC mobile handsets in the trial. Approximately 50 Union Bonus cardholders will download their cards through OTA (Over-the-Air) method to their NFC-enabled Nokia 3220-model handsets.

The users can make payments by placing the handsets within a 10- centimeter range to the POS (Point Of Sale) terminals that have 'contactless' card readers installed.

Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, NFC is a combination of 'contactless' identification and interconnection technology that enables wireless short-range communication between mobile devices, consumer electronics, PCs and smart objects, such as smart phones and smart cards.

For this trial UMS and NextAge installed the Vivotech 'contactless' card readers and upgraded the software related to mobile payment. Nokia said that the existing bankcard POS network can be converted into an NFC transaction environment by adding card readers to POS terminals.

'Contactless' payment can boost transaction speed by at least one-third, Nokia said.

In June 2006, Nokia launched in Xiamen city China's first Near Field Communication (NFC) trial together with Royal Philips Electronics, China Mobile's Xiamen subsidiary and Xiamen e-Tong card.