Leading Norwegian financial services provider DnB NOR and the world's sixth largest mobile operator Telenor have launched a trial of a new mobile payment solution. The project, called Tap2Pay, is based on innovative Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and utilizes infrastructure provided by Giesecke & Devrient (G&D). Other companies involved in the project include MasterCard, provider of the MOTAPS system and the PayPassTM payment product, as well as Nets, one of Northern Europe's biggest providers of payment solutions. The pilot trial in Oslo is aimed at collecting feedback from consumers and store owners about making contactless payments using mobile phones.
The trial - in which 250 consumers have been provided with Samsung S5230 mobile phones equipped with NFC short-range wireless technology and a SIM card containing a G&D payment application - is being carried out in the Oslo district of Majorstua. Kaffebrenneriet coffee bars, outlets of the Vita cosmetics chain and Deli de Luca Group restaurants have all been equipped with the new payment terminals. The NFC solution behind the Tap2Pay project is provided as a complete end-to-end solution by G&D.
In the Tap2Pay project, contactless payment with NFC-enabled mobile phones offers users a number of advantages. Paying for items in a store is both fast and easy - customers simply hold their mobile phone against the payment terminal and the amount is immediately debited to their MasterCard. This speeds up the checkout process while enforcing high security standards equivalent to those of a conventional card payment.
The mobile phones are equipped with G&D's ProxSIM®Taurus SIM card, an innovative type of 3G/GSM mini SIM card which supports NFC technology and offers special security features. The payment application, personalization of card credentials, and updates are loaded onto the SIM cards over the air (OTA) via the mobile network. For this pilot trial, G&D is installing the MasterCard PayPassTM payment application on the NFC-compatible SIM cards using its secure Trusted Service Manager (TSM) service. G&D's TSM is connected with MasterCard Mobile Over-The-Air Provisioning Service (MOTAPS) and is the world's first deployment of the system supporting contactless EMV payment on the NFC SIM and mobile phone.
The technology G&D uses to provide its Trusted Service Manager service is based on G&D's high-security, scalable, and high-availability SmartTrust NFC Service Manager. Building upon G&D's SmartTrust DP OTA platform, SIMs and any other Secure Element or mobile device can be managed independently of the network technology used. G&D's SmartTrust NFC Service Manager software offers a broad range of management functionalities designed to meet the specific requirements of service providers and mobile operators regarding scalability, performance, reliability and interoperability.
"The Oslo test is one of the first in Scandinavia and will be an important milestone towards our 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," says Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO in Telenor, who will be one of those taking part in the test.
"One of DnB NOR's ambitions is to lead the way in the development of digital bank services. If we are to succeed in a market in which more and more services are being integrated into mobile phones, we need to have a good, innovative partner like Telenor. The test will show how we can work together to bring the payment systems of the future to Norway," says Rune Bjerke, CEO of DnB NOR.
Michael Kuemmerle, Member of the Management Board Group Executive, Mobile Security at Giesecke & Devrient says: "We experience a strong worldwide demand to roll out NFC payment solutions. Working with DnB NOR, Telenor, and the other participants in this project is helping us to further understand end-user adoption. Such projects are important to further enhance G&D's international technological leadership in the NFC area."
