Mobiles hope to be 'smart wallet'

Mobile phone are closer to becoming smart wallets, following agreement among mobile operators on an approach to near field communications (NFC). The BBC reports.

''NFC is a short-range wireless technology like RFID tags, which are used to track stock by retailers.

Mobile firms representing 40% of the global mobile market back NFC.

A mobile equipped with NFC technology could, for example, buy a concert ticket over the phone which would then hold those details, together with the details of the phone user, on the tag inside the handset. An RFID device at the concert would then ''read'' the concert ticket details on the tag when the phone is passed close to it. NFC technology could also be used to exchange data between phones, such as photos and music. ''

No timescale for the development of NFC technology has been given. Fourteen mobile network operators which are part of the GSM Association are working together to develop NFC applications.

They are Bouygues Telecom, China Mobile, Cingular Wireless, KPN, Mobilkom Austria, Orange, SFR, SK Telecom, Telefonica Mviles Espaa, Telenor, TeliaSonera, TIM, Vodafone and 3''.
11/21/2006 7:57:49 PM
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