Four Asian telecommunications firms have formed an NFC alliance to ensure cross-border compatibility of mobile payment systems and branding.
Japan's KDDI, Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), Hong Kong Telecommunication and Korea's SK Planet say the Asia NFC Alliance will jointly review standardisation of NFC tag specifications, common brand marks and NFC platforms and "work to resolve issues facing the popularisation and expansion of mobile NFC services".
Takashi Tanaka, president of KDDI, says: "We hope that this alliance will be an open organisation for the expansion of overseas co-operation services. We aim to actively promote collaboration with telecommunications carriers not only in Asia but in Europe and America, and create a world in which users in every country can avail themselves of NFC services."
The alliance has met with approval from mobile operator trade group GSMA.
Pierre Combelles, business lead, digital commerce of GSMA says: "Cross operator interoperability, and common platforms to easily develop and deploy services are key enablers to attract service providers and grow the NFC ecosystem. By working together with the Asia NFC Alliance, we hope to lay down a solid foundation for subscribers to experience a wealth of top quality NFC services across Asia - and to build best practice for other regions."