NFC Times Exclusive: Hungary’s three major mobile operators and its largest bank are planning to commercially launch NFC in 2014, following a mobile-wallet pilot that has demonstrated that users might be more willing to pay with their phones than with cards.
Magyar Telekom, Vodafone Hungary, Telenor Hungary and OTP Bank launched the large trial in July with almost 2,000 users and released results of the first three months Tuesday. Magyar Telecom uses the T-Mobile brand and is majority owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom
The trial, which is testing a debit application issued by the bank and supporting MasterCard PayPass, along with an application from loyalty scheme SuperShop, has been coordinated by the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association. The association, which reported results today of the first three months of the trial, was formed in 2011 by the telcos, OTP Bank, MasterCard and the loyalty scheme.
OTP’s head of electronic banking told NFC Times that the bank plans to launch NFC commercially by the second half of 2014 with at least one telco. A spokeswoman for the wallet association told NFC Times the three telcos also plan to launch NFC commercially, around the middle of next year.
But each telco would launch separately, and the association is not a joint venture.
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Among Topics Covered:
•NFC commercial launch plans in Hungary
•Results of first three months of mobile-wallet trial involving three major Hungarian telcos, OTP Bank and other partners
•Suppliers of NFC SIMs, TSM, mobile wallet and phones for trial
•Number of PayPass-enabled POS terminals and locations in Hungary
•Comments from OTP Bank on using NFC SIM as secure element versus host-card emulation.
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