The Norwegian capital Oslo will be the location for an mobile payments trial involving Telenor, MasterCard and customers of DnB Nor, a local bank. During the summer months around 250 Telenor and DnB Nor customers will be provided with NFC-enabled Samsung handsets and a modified SIM card.
The trial, which is part financed by the research council of Norway's "NFC City" project, will enable the participants to purchase low-value items by holding their Samsung handsets close to MasterCard PayPass-enabled readers installed in three coffee shop chains. Purchases will be debited from the customer's MasterCard account.
Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in a statement that the Oslo test is one of the first in Scandinavia and would be an important milestone towards the use of mobile phones as wallets. "We are certain that contactless payment via mobile will become extremely widespread, because we all take our mobiles everywhere we go, and because it's a secure and easy way to pay."
However, news of this trial comes three years after Telenor, MasterCard and DnB Nor outlined plans for a contactless m-payments technology trial in Oslo based upon NFC technology. A similar trial took place a year later. Other firms involved with this latest attempt include Teller, Nets and Giesecke and Devrient.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Fin Extra article
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