Taiwan’s largest mobile operator, Chunghwa Telecom, will announce the launch of commercial NFC service on Wednesday, with participation from MasterCard Worldwide, four major banks and the island nation’s largest transit and retail e-purse, EasyCard, NFC Times has learned.

It’s the culmination of years of work by the telco on NFC technology, including developing its own TSM in-house, which the banks will use for the SIM-based service. But it will not be the only NFC mobile-payments platform in commercial use for long, with more platforms expected to launch by the first part of next year. 

The banks planning to launch NFC mobile payments with Chunghwa Telecom, or CHT, are among the largest credit card issuers in the country: Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Cathay United Bank, Taishin International Bank and E.Sun Commercial Bank. The same four banks are expected to use one or more of the other platforms, as well, and reportedly have already invested in one of the other platforms.