The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/26/ericsson_nfc_claim/

Contactless payment tech in all phones next year, says Ericsson boss

Killer phone feature for 2010?

By James Sherwood

Posted in Phones, 26th June 2009 12:55 GMT

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All mobile phones will feature Near Field Communications (NFC) technology within 12 months, a mobile industry executive has claimed.

While speaking at a recent company event in Stockholm, Håkan Djuphammar, Ericsson's VP of systems architecture, said: “A year from now, basically every new phone that's sold will have [Near Field Communication]”.

Djuphammar also hinted that NFC technology will be built directly onto the Sim card – a method that some phone firms, including Nokia, and network operators have already begun exploring.

Building a “secure environment” onto the Sim card where “trusted identities” or “secure elements” can be created will also enable phones to be used like car keys or a credit card, Djuphammar said, according to numerous online reports.

Nokia, for example, back in April rolled out what it claimed was the world’s first SIM-enabled NFC phone - the 6212 Classic [1].

By linking NFC to the SIM, rather than just adding an NFC chip into the phone, Nokia stressed that network operators will be able to develop their own NFC payments services. ®