NFC Times Exclusive: Taiwan’s NFC joint venture formed last year by the country’s five mobile operators and closed-loop payment scheme EasyCard has chosen a TSM provider for its planned TSM hub, NFC Times has learned.
The joint venture, called the Alliance Digital Technology Co., has chosen France-based Safran Morpho to build both a service provider and secure element-issuer TSM platform, sources in Taiwan told NFC Times. Morpho topped a short list of vendors that included Gemalto and a bid from one of the joint venture’s own founding members, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest operator. South Korea-based SK C&C also submitted a tender on the contract.
Sources with the joint venture told NFC Times that a major factor in the selection of Morpho was its low price for the platform technology. Chunghwa Telecom’s tender or later negotiations also significantly undercut a price from TSM market-leader Gemalto, said sources. But the Chunghwa Telecom bid was rejected by one or both of the other major Taiwanese telcos in the venture, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone.
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• Updated table on SP-TSM aggregators, SEi-TSM aggregators and hubs, including backers and TSM platform vendors
Among Topics Covered:
• Taiwan NFC joint venture, Alliance Digital Technology Co., chooses TSM technology supplier
• TSMs submitting proposals for TSM contract and those short-listed
•.Impact of the price of the winning proposal and how it might affect other markets
• Reasons that proposal from the TSM unit of Chunghwa Telecom was not chosen
• Fragmentation in Taiwan’s budding NFC-payments market
• Morpho contract win in light of Gemalto’s success in winning contracts from regional TSM hubs and aggregators
Among companies and organizations mentioned:
Alliance Digital Technology Co. (Taiwan telco JV)
Safran Morpho
Gemalto
Chunghwa Telecom
Taiwan Mobile
Far EasTone
EasyCard Corp.
National Credit Card Center (Taiwan)
Jetco
Giesecke & Devrient
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