Far EasTone, one of Taiwan’s top three mobile operators, Monday announced plans for a large multiapplication NFC pilot among employees of its large conglomerate owner, Far Eastern Group.
The trial, which could lead to a commercial launch next year, will combine payment, transit fare collection and retail loyalty applications on SIM cards the telco issues.
Far EasTone, or FET, will offer a range of NFC-enabled Android phones for the pilot–the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy S III mini and Sony Xperia Z, along with a low-cost Android phone, the NFC-enabled Vodafone Smart III, from Vodafone Group, which will only be available in Taiwan from Far EasTone.
Far EasTone President Yvonne Li reportedly said Monday that more than 50% of the telco’s handsets will be NFC-enabled by the second half of the year, and she believes a greater share of NFC phones will be available at lower price ranges than before.
The trial likely will have about 1,000 users and could launch this summer, though it might not launch until later in the year.
Applications will include a mobile credit card supporting MasterCard Worldwide’s PayPass technology issued by Far Eastern International Bank. The payment application will be combined with the well-established Happy Go loyalty points program. Far Eastern Group owns both the bank and loyalty program. PayPass is accepted at around 25,000 point-of-sale terminals in Taiwan.
Taipei-based contactless fare-collection scheme EasyCard, which is also accepted at about 10,000 shops in Taiwan, will be involved the trial, as well.
And there will also be a stored-value payment and loyalty card users can tap at 100 locations of the Dante Coffee chain. The Mifare-based Dante cards will be managed over the air on the SIMs by trusted service manager Safran Morpho.
The other payment applications, PayPass and EasyCard, will be preloaded on SIMs, likely because Taiwanese banking regulators require a TSM with data centers in Taiwan to manage these applications. Only the HTC One and Galaxy S III will be able to be used for EasyCard, since only these phones are certified to work in battery-off mode.
A second issuer, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, plans to introduce a PayPass application for the project, though it requires approval from banking regulators, even to have the applciation preloaded. And there is the possibility for a second transit fare-collection application, usable in Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaohsciung and an access-control service.
Plans also call for enabling users to tap their NFC phones on smart posters to downlaod electronic coupons.
Thian Yee Chua, senior vice president, convergence services at Morpho told NFC Times through a company spokeswoman that unlike other NFC projects that only promote retail payment and have been suffering from lackluster take-up by consumers, the Far EasTone project will offer a range of services.
“We have seen many NFC projects fade after their novelty wore off or the consumer incentives dried up,” Chua said. “From our point of view, this is mainly due to a lack of integration in the daily consumer lifestyle, the widening differences between the business objectives of the NFC program manager and the partners, and the continuous investments required to offer new services.”
Since Far EasTone is part of a conglomerate that also owns department stores and other retail properties, a bank and runs its own loyalty program, the telcos has a strong base from which to build, he said.
“The FET project together with Far Eastern Group can potentially become the worldwide NFC reference implementation, because they are not starting from zero–they already have a well-equipped house, and NFC is just a way to link all their services and attract new service providers to the house.“
Other NFC Projects
Far EasTone isn’t the only mobile operator gearing up for NFC. Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest mobile operator, along with four banks announced plans in May to launch NFC-mobile payment, likely starting with Cathay United Bank.
Banking regulators at the Financial Supervisory Commission approved NFC mobile payment on SIM cards and managed over the air by Chunghwa Telecom’s own trusted service manager for at least one of the banks, Cathay United, beginning with a six-month trial, which is expected to lead to a commercial launch. But the retail-payment trial has yet to launch. Kaohsiung transit officials last week also announced plans for a mobile NFC fare-collection project with Chunghwa Telecom.
Taiwan Mobile, which ranked as second larger mobile operator in Taiwan in terms of revenue in the first quarter, just ahead of FET, also plans to introduce NFC mobile payment, with Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank in August, preloading a credit card on an NFC SIM.
And the three major Taiwanese mobile operators, along with two smaller telcos, Vibo Telecom and Asia Pacific Telecom, as well as EasyCard Corp. have formed a joint venture, mainly to hire a trusted service manager to manage both SIMs and other secure elements, as well as provisioning of applications over the air for service providers. The venture is now in the tendering process for the TSM.