MasterCard and Nokia are once again trialing near-field communications (NFC) based contactless payments in Dallas, Texas (which is where I am currently). The trial will include 500 participants, Nokia 3220s (photo) and eFinity prepaid accounts, which are accessible at McDonald's and 7-Eleven. MasterCard and Nokia have been testing mobile payments in Dallas for going on three years now, leading Bill Gates to wonder, where is my mobile wallet already?
Back in April, the mobile wallet trend started to gather some steam again, but has since been rarely mentioned save for a few MVNO empowered mobile banking announcements.
For more on the latest NFC trials:
- see this article from RCRNews