At MWC, Telefónica O2 joined the veteran of contactless mobile services DoCoMo showcasing several NFC applications. Telefónica O2's Czech and UK operators have tested NFC-based transport ticketing with Over-The-Air credit top up and an eWallet application for small payments. The services were demoed on NFC-embedded Nokia 6131 handset using NXP's MIFARE4Mobile standard. Field trials at Telefonica O2 will start around end-2009, with a commercial launch tentatively slotted for 2H 2010.
NFC's adoption in Europe has been much slower than expected two years ago, but recent trials brought it closer to commercial reality. The ecosystem is starting to take shape: Telefónica worked with Visa, Barclays bank, Transport for London and Nokia to support its trials. In France, ERGOSUM NFC initiative brought together the largest supermarkets, such as Auchan and Carrefour, financial services providers and mobile operators Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR, and committed to field trials in 2009 and deployments in 2010.
The availability of NFC mobile handsets is now the main barrier for the mass-market rollout in Europe, as fragmented market has limited the volumes for handset component manufacturers. The recent announcements of universal security chipsets promise to accelerate the release of new handsets. At MWC, Moversa, a JV between Sony and NXP, demonstrated its Universal Secure Access Module U-SAM, which will support three existing standards – Sony's FeliCa, used by DoCoMo since 2004, MIFARE and Java.
ABI Research forecasts limited device shipments in 2009, growing to 300,000 in 2012. The initial trials have used embedded NFC handsets, but Telefonica mentioned that many MNOs would prefer to use SIM-based NFC applications. Contactless SIMs are seen as potentially more secure and flexible, easy to disable when a handset is lost and transfer to a new device during a replacement.