NFC Times Exclusive – Turkey’s largest mobile operator, Turkcell, one of the first telcos globally to launch NFC service commercially, has pulled back from the technology, having seen too little take-up for NFC retail payments, NFC Times has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the program, say Turkcell is no longer investing in NFC technology for credit and debit payment, though it might still be interested in enabling NFC-based transit fare collection. 

The telco’s latest branded phone, the ZTE-manufactured T50, introduced in June, does not support NFC. That is the first such phone that does not support NFC since the telco introduced NFC on its branded handsets with the T20 in July of 2011.