NFC (near field communications) is destined to become a standard technology included in every mobile phone thanks to an agreement which simplifies the security, according to NXP Semiconductors.
Wireless chip suppliers are getting very excited about NFC, which can provide very short range data links for ticketing and sales transactions from a mobile.
“At the moment you have to put an NFC chip and a smartcard chip in the phone which is quite an investment,” said Ton van Kampen, v-p business development for mobile and personal at NXP.
“However an agreement has now been made where you only have to put an NFC chip in and the Sim card doubles as security,” said van Kampen.
The ‘single-wire protocol’ creates a standard link between the Sim and the NFC chip and van Kampen said the firm supported this.
A pan-European consortium of companies, universities and user groups has been created to develop an open architecture for the development, deployment and use of NFC-enabled applications in mobile handsets.
NFC will be used for financial transactions such as envisaged in the ‘Pay-Buy Mobile’ initiative announced at 3GSM by trade organisation the GSM Association.