Japan's NTT DoCoMo is planning to introduce mobile NFC payment services, and has contracted Gemalto to provide the systems for the rollout.
DoCoMo has selected Gemalto's Allynis trusted service management service and UpTeq NFC UICC for the NFC services.
The operator plans to deploy offerings including mobile payments, loyalty programs, e-ticketing and access control.
Gemalto president of South Asia and Japan said the country is the ideal market for NFC payment services. “Japan has the world’s largest contactless infrastructure so end consumers are already familiar to waving their mobile phone to enjoy contactless services,” he said.
“The NFC functionality builds on the UpTeq LTE card that NTT DOCOMO has already started to seed the market with, and will enable them to offer their customers an enhanced NFC experience.”
Gemalto and NTT DoCoMo have been business partners for years, with Gemalto helping to support the operator's LTE launch in 2010.
Last week, DoCoMo and Huawei announced they had completed a successful trial of LTE over unlicensed 5-GHz spectrum, without interfering with Wi-Fi or other services using the band.