If you have not already read my wonderful post of last year’s event, you can always get a look here . If you are interested in fresher news, you are at the right place.
It was my very real pleasure to drive once again to Barcelona this year. Surely because, before anything, I could feel that spring was in the air. Next because if you are at all interested in new technologies, MWC is one of the few big annual events.

What’s new?

Nothing much, really! If you are following the high-tech news, you are already continuously being bombarded with press-releases and the likes. Honestly, it tends to spoil the fun, so most of the surprises were mere confirations in the end.

Like every year, some big players were present, others not (Apple keeps playing on its own) and others quite confidential (Microsoft decided once again to reserve their best shots for a series of VIP meetings to which I was not invited). This was nonetheless Nokia’s big comeback, with a booth even bigger than Google’s.

Some new handset models were presented, but I could not see any glittering hardware innovation.

No hardware, only software

Maybe the biggest change has been the global orientation on services platforms. Of course, you can still witness some nice devices, new tablets, brand new shiny phone and some nice concepts (special mention to Asus padphone, or how can I transform a phone into a tablet into a netbook).

But unlike previous year(s), the emphasis was pretty much put on integrated services.Of course, mobile marketing is still King and considering the money at stakes, it will remain like that.

• Visa was obviously promoting TSM services for the next Olympics, being gold sponsor. The idea will be to distribute NFC phones to sportsmen so that they can pay their purchases with a very athletic tap&go gesture.
• ARM presented some advanced security concepts on making secure e-payments. Considering the last news about undetected security threats on mobile phones, it will be a hot topic in the coming months.
• Some special attention was put to micro-payment using SMS or QR codes exchanges;
• Google presented its Google Wallet
• TSM offers were no longer looked at awkwardly, wondering what this additional player was doing in the ecosystem.

So it seems that the mobile market is getting more and more mature, in the sense that the business model is more about what we can do with the device than about the device itself.

Where is NFC?

To be 100% honest, NFC was still not quite in everyone’s mind. If some NFC indications were present on every booth and every manufacturer presented at least one NFC phone, only Google and Nokia did properly explained its purpose.  In the end, the big question remains in the air: how can I make money out of it?

I am still not sure about who will drive the market, what will be the killer app. Some banks are even starting to reconsider their role as a micro-payment processor to the benefit of “newcomers” like Google or Paypal. The entry cost for NFC payment implementation is significant and there is no more incentive for the banks to do NFC than Contactless cards. The dificulty  of NFC is that it seems it cannot be profitable unless you are combining a certain number of services (payment + loyalty + transit + Id) that share the initial set-up costs. And the past history of smartcards indicates how difficult multi-app is to organize.

But the good news is that the phone is also definitely the good device to do it; mobile also opens the door for new solutions that were not possible with simple smartcards, like open-loop or cross-merchant/acquirer loyalty programs and there is definitely some business to do in this direction.

It is clear that the perspectives are still wide-opened. The good news is: whatever they might be, we are ready for it.

ABnote Global, a leading global provider of secure documents, issuance systems and related services, announced today that its European data center has earned approval as a MasterCard Trusted Service Manager (TSM).  The TSM certification for the data center in France complements the TSM certifications previously received by ABnote’s Australian and New Zealand data centers, which were the first in Australasia to earn  such approval.

ABnote’s European TSM designation expands even further the Company’s ability to provide highly-secure remote services, including  the over-the-air  (OTA) and over –the-internet (OTI) downloading and personalization of NFC-enabled mobile phones, as well as instant-issuance solutions.

ABnote’s TSM delivers interoperability between mobile operators and financial issuers who utilize a mobile phone with a Micro SD, iPhone Sleeve or SIM Card (UICC chip).  The TSM is a safe platform to securely provision payment and offer additional applications across a secure network.

With ABnote’s TSM, financial institutions and service providers receive a cost-effective, easy to use, standardized and secure method to transfer and install MasterCard PayPass™ enabled payment account information, on demand and real time, onto NFC enabled mobile phones. Once provisioned, consumers can immediately use their mobile phone at every merchant location worldwide where PayPass™ is accepted.

Philippe DELANOUE ABnote Europe CEO stated that, “ABnote offers an independent and secure TSM platform, which results in innovative, secure and profitable mobile applications. A variety of deployment models which meet the unique needs of customers are available, delivering confidence in the implementation and ongoing management of the TSM services provided. With more than 200 years of experience in processing and safeguarding critical data, ABnote continues to deliver the trust and security customers can rely upon.”

About ABnote and ABnote Europe:

ABnote, with facilities in North America, Europe and Australasia, is a premiere and trusted provider of secure issuance and related services.In addition to secure mobile payment technology, primary products include identification and secure access cards (drivers’ licenses, national ID cards for governments worldwide, hotel and facility entry cards), financial cards (debit and credit cards), commercial plastic cards (gift, loyalty and membership), secure documents (savings bonds, stock certificates, passports, vital records, and checks), and related services (personalisation, warehousing, distribution and fulfilment). Besides the secure mobile payment, ABnote Europe is one of the European leaders of the supply and the personalization of banking, financial, identification, transport and loyalty cards. The company also supplies a consequent range of transaction systems for these various sectors. ABnote Europe brings together under the same brand a secure personalization plan and datacenter in France, a card manufacture and personalization plan, based in Ostrava in Czech Republic but also commercial offices in Slovakia.

Leading on from Cartes North America

Following on from last week’s success at the Cartes North America show in Las Vegas, where ABnote was a Platinum sponsor, we are now looking forward to the Australian Cards and Payments Show which will be held in Sydney on 20^th and 21^st of March.

At Cartes North America the key topics were the USA migration to EMV for payment cards and the influence of mobile NFC enabled payment and it is now clear that NFC will surely transform the global payment sector. As Australia leads the USA in the deployment of an EMV payment infrastructure the Cards and Payments conference is focused on the benefits & innovation which flow from a modern and secure payment environment.

NFC Mobile Payment & Card Technologies

Therefore it’s not surprising to find that ABnote will be demonstrating its approach for NFC Mobile payment, its latest chip and card technologies and of course solutions for mass transit.

As Cards and Payments is a multi-theme event we will also be demonstrating how ABnote solutions can benefit the retail sector.  At Cartes NA we really caught the US retail sectors imagination through our demonstration on NFC enabled couponing and discount vouchers that we couple with payment.

ABnote Presentations

At this year’s event we also have two of our business leaders, John Ekers (Global CIO) and Marc Airo-Farulla (Sales Director Financial Services) presenting on these topics and for those who cannot make the show keep a watch out for the blog posts of their addresses which will be published over the next weeks.

Government Sector

Digital ID makes up the last of the streams at Cards and Payments, with ABnote dedicating a portion of its stand to show case its solutions for Government ID, Licencing and other credentials all of which are delivered using our secure issuance platform.  As at Cartes NA we will also be showing how the mobile device can be used as a secure token to deliver credentials and access control using an NFC equipped device.

Steve Andrinos (Sales Director Government Sector) is to present a paper “delivering a secure national ID strategy” and again for those that cannot get to hear his presentation we will be publishing an extract on www.secureissuance.com over coming weeks.

If you plan to be in Sydney on March 20th or 21st be sure to visit our booth at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre.

We have recently produced a short video on the development of NFC and the role of the TSM from an ABnote perspective.

Click on the the following link to view and let me know what you think.

ABnote NFC and TSM

Alternatively visit us at the Cartes North America Exhibition on in Las Vegas - March 5th to 7th 2012 –  Booth 404

Governments all around the world are facing unprecedented financial strain as the fall out of the global financial crisis continues to impact in various forms. All governments and their administrations struggle to manage their budgets against increasing foreign debt, unemployment, social security, education and health care demands.
Then there is the national security agenda to be considered. With the sophistication of frauds against individuals as well as organizations and countries continuing to challenge, along with incidence of identity fraud increasing, the cost of a national response is escalating. Government agencies themselves are also not immune from the impacts of identity frauds. A recent example, perhaps only illustrating the tip of the iceberg is the Australian Tax Office, which in 2011 announced that $27 million over a period of months was paid out as tax refunds to fraudsters using stolen tax file numbers and Identity Cards

 Multi – Application Credentials

While there has been much written on the need for the introduction of biometrics, facial recognition, and smartcards within national Identity or credential projects, implementation and operating costs are often stated as a reason for governments to defer investment. However if such initiatives can be multi-functional there is not only an opportunity to reduce implementation cost to any individual issuer, but there is also a significant increase in user acceptability and use.
The Malaysian MyKad is an example where a multi- application Identity card has been widely accepted because the Government incorporated applications that created significant utility for the card holder.
In this case the card is a Dual Interface ID (contact and contactless) product including photo, personal data and fingerprints with access to at least 12 different applications such as:

• National ID
• Drivers License
• Health Card
• Travel Document (for travel to neighboring countries)
• Internet Banking (using the Public Key Infrastructure)
• Online Tax Returns
• Tolls
• Transit
• It even makes it more convenient to have you car repairs completed.

Taking Small Steps

However even before we get to the benefits of a multi-application smart ID programs, if co-operation rather than competition can be arranged between government agencies looking to address their various photo credentialing/identity needs, then a lowering of operational costs is possible. In several states of Australia the introduction of a shared services model for the purpose of photo enrolment is either in process of rollout or under development. The state of Tasmania is such an example where its various Government Agencies serve the public through common Customer Service Centers located around the state. These shared service points allow citizens to enroll for a photo card Drivers License, Firearms ID, Fishing ID, Proof of Age ID, seniors or public transport subsidy card from a single capture event.
There are many similar examples in many countries where citizens hold various ID cards using different photographic images. Typically each ID is managed and funded by the department responsible for that particular credential. For example in Australia you can have a Drivers Licence, Passport, Firearms Licence, Working with Children ID or Workplace ID all as photo credentials, but where the enrolment process occurs five (5) times. In other words there are 5 images associated with the same person in the various Government databases. Under this regime there is no cost efficiency associated with image capture, de duplication and cross referencing activities. Another consequence is that the fraudsters see this as a great opportunity to engineer a single photo for multiple identities. So the concept of capture once, use many times not only improves the efficiency of the process, but it also reduces the opportunity for fraud while being far more convenient to citizens.

One Image, One ID – a quadruple win!

Of course there are privacy issues to be addressed in the “one image, one ID” approach, and if these needs are considered at the earliest stages of the design process, i.e. Privacy by Design principles are adopted they can be addressed in a straight forward manner.
The use of one image across all government agencies provides a great opportunity to rationalize and standardise identity programs, enhance the investigation of fraudulent activity, reduce operating costs and improve security outcomes for all.

Mastercard TSM Certification

On January 25th ABnote Australasia achieved MasterCard Trusted Service Manager (TSM) Certification for Australia and New Zealand.

The TSM hubs, located in Ingleburn NSW and Christchurch NZ, are the first in Australasia to successfully complete the compliance process and receive approval by MasterCard’s Mobile Partner Program. MasterCard certification allows ABnote to provide TSM services such as secure management and over-the-air application download and personalisation to NFC-enabled mobile phones.  The TSM delivers interoperability between mobile operators and financial issuers over a safe platform to securely provision payment and offer applications across a network on a secure element that is embedded within a mobile handset, Micro SD, iPhone sleeve or Sim Card (UICC chip)

With ABnote TSM, banks and service providers have a, cost-effective, easy to use, standardized and secure method to transfer and install MasterCard PayPass™ enabled payment account information, on demand, in real time, onto NFC enabled mobile phones. Once provisioned, consumers can immediately use their mobile phone at merchant locations where PayPass™  is accepted.

Secure TSM services are essential for NFC

NFC – based contactless services offer major benefits to consumers in terms of speed and convenience, however the implementation of these services and the multiplayer nature of delivering the solutions to the end user; which generally involves banks, mobile operators and retailers creates a unique challenge for issuers; how do these companies collaborate to deliver a seamless solution across a multitude of devices? The Trusted Service Manager (TSM) delivers predictable consistency to the complex multi player NFC Ecosystem by delivering the service provider’s application across a customer base using one common contact point. MasterCard TSM certification gives assurance to financial institutions that confidentiality and integrity of payment data is protected to MasterCard requirements during the entire management process MasterCard works alongside vendors to offer secure NFC payment solutions to its issuing banks. They ollaborate with technological enablers like ABnote to allow financial institutions to rollout NFC MasterCard  PayPass™ mobile services safely, making the fast-paced lifestyles of consumers just that little bit easier, as well as spurring the growth of contactless payments in the market.

ABnote helps Banks to commercialise contactless mobile payments

With our many years of experience in EMV contact and contactless payment cards we are able to deliver complete solutions for the commercial roll-out of NFC TSM services and meet the rapidly growing demand for NFC applications. The MasterCard certification is yet another milestone for us to showcase our technological capability and enable the NFC ecosystem to grow in the Trans-Tasman region.

Our TSM solves implementation headaches for service providers

ABnote’s  readiness to provide commercial TSM services and its MasterCard certification is an important step in enabling financial institutions to leverage their investment in, and commercialise their contactless mobile payment services. The completed certification demonstrates our compliance with the stringent security requirements set by MasterCard and the first in Australasia to achieve it.

Background

In the latter part of 2011 I was invited to establish a focused international business unit for the ABnote Group. I have had a strong and successful career in the Identity market, and specifically in the provision of products and solutions for credentialing and national identity projects. The opportunity presented by ABnote is expected be both rewarding and challenging, but I am ready for this.

Of recent years I have spent a great deal of time servicing the needs of customers in the Middle East and the emerging nations of Africa and not surprisingly this will be an initial geography of focus for us.

With Identity fraud continuing to rise year over year we need to see government at all levels step up to the plate by considering, planning and finding funding sources to implement national security management infrastructures that are fit for purpose for all stakeholders.

Experience teaches us that driving e’ID programs solely from the security and counter terrorism perspective only results in projects that are marginally successful, that is if adoption and use rates are to the measure of success. Even where it is compulsory for all citizens and residents to enrol in the National ID program, those programs that offer multiple applications of practical benefit to users, prove to be more successful than those that have a singular purpose.

 The Successful e’ID Project Profile

Our research has identified a number of key aspects that should be adopted for sucessful credentialing or ID project with these being: trust, portability, reliability, and functionality.

In summary the most successful e’ID projects all offer the following key characteristics:

• Security, Trust and the reliability of Gvt support
• Citizen Utility arising from multiple applications
• Open access to the core operating system to industry participants by arrangements such as; licensing without fees, and/or open systems standards
• Availability of Certification Authorities
• Portability of certificates
• Provision of a smart card infrastructure so that individuals can reasonably expect to have access to card readers at home, work and in public places.

However we also recognise that adding multiple applications to any ID project increases the complexity risk. For this reason the International Business Unit has specialist skills to assist customers with the architectural development such that a best of bred approach can be adopted.

As in any quality system, it is very important to ensure that the upfront planning and preparation tasks are attended to by those with experience and expertise in the specialist subject areas that ar e encountered national credentialing programs.

Similarly it is also important to expedite the development of these projects such that they avoid fatally long gestation periods. Because ABnote has taken a position of technology neutrality, our security management systems design always starts by understanding the customer’s needs and wants, with the choice of technology following. By necessity of this approach an open systems architecture results. There are many benefits that arise from this approach, and one that is of particular importance to central government is that the project can commit to a time line driven by the principle application. This means that the supplementary applications can follow at a pace defined by their agency sponsor, while still being able to leverage the common security management infrastructure at reduced cost.

 Our Approach

My team is based in Hilden, near Dusseldorf, Germany and has its focus on Europe, Middle East, and Africa, the CIS countries, North & Central Asia and Central & Latin American market.
We leverage the Groups 1500 world-wide employees and have access the group’s production plants in Canada, USA, Czech Republic, France, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are certified to International Quality Standards Organization ISO9001:2008.

This is highly important to our customers because the process of production and issuance of any card, passport or credential needs to be managed within a security environment that conforms to the highest of quality assurance standards.

Issuing products with faulty chips, antennas or constructions not only results in frustration for users but creates a grand opportunity for fraudsters. Faced with a non functioning product, service providers will often revert to visual inspection of data on the product such as name and photo, and accept the credential as proof of ID and entitlement.

The Malaysian government experienced such issues in the early stage of implementing their Mykad project. These problems created a huge demand for stolen cards, reportedly with an estimated 2.1 million cards being lost or stolen.

So getting this bit wrong is not only costly but it undermines public trust in the credential.

We already have a number of projects under development and expect 2012 to be a good foundation year. If you have any queries or experiences you may wish to share please contact me via email or visit us at Cartes North America March 5th to 7th.

Hopefully you read my earlier blog on NFC Contactless Stickers in which I outlined the reasons why a contactless sticker is a great way for an Issuer to begin to build their NFC strategy and experience. I think stickers are a good first step along the path to supporting full NFC capable devices.

Kaching!

In the last couple of months their have been a number of high profile announcements regarding NFC. One announcement which I found particularly interesting was from the Commonwealth Bank. They have launched a new mobile banking application for iPhone called “Kaching”. The Kaching application has the full range of mobile internet banking features; however the really interesting feature for me is that this application uses an NFC sleeve to conduct contactless payments. The application is free however to enjoy the NFC experience you will need to purchase a sleeve for your iPhone 4.

Pathway Products

Mobile handsets that natively support NFC and contactless transactions have only recently become available. Some notable examples include the Google Nexus S, the Blackberry 9900 and Blackberry 9930. The vast majority of handsets do not support NFC, the iPhone 4 falls into this category.  I like to use the term “Pathway Products” to describe the range of solutions that have been developed to add an NFC capability to non NFC handsets.  The following is a short overview of the two types of pathway products we have used.

NFC Sleeves

An NFC sleeve is a protective plastic sleeve that clips onto a handset and protects the body of the phone. We have used NFC sleeves from a number of manufacturers, the sleeves are all similar in design and construction and contain in the body of the sleeve, a contactless antenna, a secure element chip, an NFC controller chip and a connector to the phone. The connector enables the sleeve to be powered by the phone’s battery and an SDK enables allows the mobile banking application or “wallet” to communicate directly to the secure element and the NFC controller.
We have found that the iCarte 420 Sleeve and the Chungwha Telecom Sleeves to be excellent devices. On the plus side the sleeves all seem to perform well and are not intrusive to the consumer. On the minus side they can be costly and drain the phone’s battery if left on. Sleeves seem to be an ideal solution for the current iPhone 4 family.
NFC sleeves are not just for payment, they can be used in transit and in retail markets as well. A great way to think of a sleeve, it’s a giant clip-on contactless card!

MicroSD adaptors

A common feature of many mobile handsets is a MicroSD expansion slot. Typically a MicroSD slot contains a MicroSD memory card which is used to add extra storage space for pictures, music and applications. A number of manufactures have developed adaptors that replace the memory card and add contactless capability to a handset.
We have trialled adaptors from a few suppliers and have found the design and performance to vary considerably.  Our experience is that these products generally contain a secure element chip, a contactless antenna and closely resemble the components contained in contactless card. In fact, some adaptors operate without any power required from the phone’s battery. In this respect they are identical to a contactless card and rely on the contactless reader to power the chip.
We found that the read performance of MicroSD adaptors varies from excellent to very poor. The performance depends on a number of factors but is strongly influenced by the manufacturers antenna design and the materials used in the body of the handset.
The adaptors come with an SDK which allows them to be accessed and integrated into your mobile banking application or mobile wallet. SDK’s are available that support the major phone operating systems including Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
One adaptor we have found to be very good is the Watchdata SDpass; we have used this in a recent NFC payment pilot with great success.
On the plus side, MicroSD adaptors are small, less expensive than NFC sleeves and don’t require power, on the minus side they can be difficult to install due to their small size and their performance can vary.

Appeal of Pathway Products

Pathway Products have a strong appeal to issuers.
Firstly, they address the growing demand from issuers who wish to support NFC and mobile transactions with current handsets.
Secondly, Pathway products work independently of the telecommunications provider and provide the issuer with a high degree of control and allow the issuer to retain a direct relationship with their customers.
Finally, by the very nature of their design and operation only a single pathway product can be used with a handset at any one time.  Only one sleeve can be placed around your customer’s iPhone and only one MicrosSD adaptor can be placed in your customer’s Android or Blackberry handset.  This puts your mobile banking application in your customer’s hand everyday and makes you “top of the mobile wallet”.

Future of Pathway Products

Pathway products do have role to play and will have a life in my view; Telecommunications providers are putting their support behind NFC as demonstrated by initiatives such as ISIS. Handset manufacturers are releasing by new phones that have NFC capability built into the handset. However there is still substantial work that needs to be completed before consumers will be able enjoy the benefits of NFC within in a seamless NFC ecosystem.
Until this happens what are you doing to today to prepare for this new payment and contactless transaction environment?
If you would like to discuss your NFC strategy or receive further details on ABnote’s experience with pathway products please email me.

I have just attended the Cartes Exposition in Paris.  Cartes is reportedly the largest exposition dealing in the subjects of cards, ID and mobile payment.  This year’s exposition was certainly influenced by the resurgence of interest in the topic of mobile contactless payment.  NFC and TSM was the topic on every body’s lips.  Conference topics on this subject were so well attended that it was almost impossible to get into the meeting rooms where speakers spoke of their experiences and ambitions.

Transit is key to NFC

Transport for London (TfL) has recently announced that it will accept NFC transactions across its network by July 2012.  Why might this be a game changer?  Well the use of a mobile phone as the contactless payment token for transit re-enforces the move to open loop – EMV payment for transit applications.  To me this strongly confirms a contention which I have argued with my colleagues, that in the future Visa, MasterCard, Discover and Amex will become the issuers of preference for transit  ticketing and payment tokens.

Secondly TfL’s Oyster card and Hong Kong’s Octopus card has driven a societal behavior in the communities they serve for “tap and go” as a means to effect payment and/or access.  And with the London Olympics in 2012, this will surely play well to increase the experience of NFC in transit. Where leaders go the rest often follow.

What about the card form factor?

But will all of this really reduce our reliance on the card as a token that enables payment?  We at ABnote don’t think this will be the case, and you might be likely to say “well of course you would say that – you make dual interface cards don’t you!” The last point is clearly true, but that is not the reason for our collective contention that the physical card and contactless mobile payment are complementary technologies.

Our reasoning is quite simple – the card is a universal device that is accepted in most countries of the world, from advanced economies to the emerging economies alike.  While globally there are 5.2 billion mobile subscribers, with 450 million of these using a Smartphone, the ecosystem required to issue and accept NFC payments is significantly more complex than that of the physical card.  At the most basic level the card requires no power to effect a transaction; it can be used in a mechanical embossing machine through to a sophisticated tap and go point of sale device.

It’s all about issuance

However we cannot ignore the significance of NFC and the implications that may arise from it.  ABnote’s presence at Cartes illustrated this; our focus this year was centered on customer driven solutions, based on a central theme of secure issuance.  We recognize that we must be able to securely personalize tokens whether this is physically in our secure manufacturing facilities, or held as a secure element in an NFC enabled Smartphone.

ABnote is the Gold sponsor of Cartes North America in Las Vegas in March 2012, where we will be again demonstrating our solutions focus with specific emphasis on those applying to EMV, NFC and ID.

CARTES is just around the corner and like every year, it will bring innovation, discussion, presentations and analysis of trends. But this year, NFC will be on every lip. With NFC, comes the usual discussion on how to bind two worlds (cards services like payment and transit, and Mobile world). Nobody will have the same answer, of course, but everyone will definitely tell you that you need a TSM.

TSM, you said TSM?

First a little bit of theory: a TSM – Trusted Service manager – describes any actor serious enough to be trusted with an issuer secret. So basically, any company already operating secure data for an issuer (bank or transit operator) is a TSM de-facto. Easy.

For NFC services specifically, a TSM has to make the link between the Mobile Network Operator (MNO), the Service Provider(SP designating a bank, a transit operator) and the end-user (Me). In a perfect world, this would imply that a TSM must be trusted with SP keys, secrets and data exchange procedures, MNO keys and Customer details. And since there is no reason why bank A should only target customers of mobile operator (MNO)  Y, he should be connected with every Service Provider in the market for each and every MNO / MVNO of the same market.

We are now talking about an entity that can deftly juggle with sensitive data, cryptography, transactions, handset database, customer details, GSM protocol, multichannel issuance, a multiplicity of secure elements and multiple handset operating systems. In a nutshell, a giant Octopus…

Global Trend

Although there are a few of those animals in the world, it is also worth considering a more pragmatic approach. Instead of having one single TSM managing everything, you figure out a model with multiple TSMs managing more or less what they already know.
And that’s just what happens in real world. MNOs have their TSMs to manage OTA issuance and additional services (device management, elligibility check) while Service Providers keep their own TSM to manage their data. So now, we solve the secret seclusion, but create a communication problem. Indeed, what guarantee do you have that the two TSMs will be able to talk to one another?
Clearly, it seems that the easy way is when the same company proposes the two “tentacles” – but that takes us back to the initial problem.

The good news, though, is that some early work performed by AFSCM and “Payez Mobile” have been adopted by global standards like GP, making the discussion much easier between each party. Developping the interface with potential third parties around those specifications allows you – with a good level of confidence – to prepare for future use-case that have not been foretold.

Final Thoughts

So we now have an architecture, allowing multiple players to act according to their best talents. And talent it is indeed, because I’ve not even mentioned mobile payment constraints, wallet deployment, interactions between multiple SPs and migration on 4G network.

The thing is, and it is only common sense, if you need to deploy NFC services, most probably you will ask people that already know about them.