Online Press Release Distribution

Following on from rumours earlier in the year that NFC (Near Field Communication) payments by mobile phone might be with us this year or next, Everything Everywhere have now announced that from early this summer, Orange customers will be able to pay with their phones using this very technology.

Everything Everywhere have collaborated with Barclays Bank and announced that the NFC system will initially be able to be used in a range of shops numbering around 40,000 including Pret a Manger, EAT, Co-op and McDonalds. In the near future however they hope that it will be possible to buy everything from a cinema ticket to a computer this way as the system is introduced into more and more retail outlets and other venues.

For this collaboration, the NFC technology will be put out directly as part of the SIM cards meaning that it will be useable on a wide range of handsets. It will still be handset dependent, but you won’t need a specific top of the range phone to use it (unlike with Google’s Nexus S where the NFC chip will be embedded in the handset instead of the SIM card).

This SIM based approach will give customers extra security, and will also mean that they will have a single point of contact for customer care for all their mobile phone and NFC needs.
It is believed that Orange are also developing their own pre-paid contactless card ‘Orange Cash’ as well, and there are already over eleven and a half million contactless payment cards in circulation here in the UK – most of them issued from Barclays.

Although the initial NFC rollout will be for Orange customers only, Everything Everywhere have announced that they are also looking into producing the same system for T-Mobile soon.

http://freesimcardsuk.org.uk/