There will be some 516m users of NFC mobile payment services by the end of 2019, up from 101m this year, thanks to the launch of Apple Pay and HCE, a forecast from Juniper Research has found. “We would envisage that while NFC deployments and consumer activity will be buoyed by these developments, the opportunities for network operator involvement are limited,” says author Dr Windsor Holden. “Hence, we are likely to see more operators re-evaluating their existing commitments to NFC and possibly withdrawing from the space.”