Exclusive: Orange to announce NFC transport partner

Orange has told TechRadar it is working with a partner to use NFC to pay for transport in the UK, with plans to announce a deal imminent.

The most obvious use of NFC in phones would be through Oyster cards in London, given the readers are already widely installed, but Jason Rees, Director of Mobile Payments & Ticketing at Everything Everywhere, wouldn't elaborate on the partner the network is working with.

"We're starting to deliver on follow ups to the Quick tap payment system - for instance we're looking at partners in the transport arena to give the customer more services.

"We're looking across the transport sector [for uses of NFC] and working in particular with one partner, which we'll announce in due course."

Easy win

The use of NFC in transport makes sense given the 'closed loop' nature... with pre-pay and zone-specific travelcards the main items embedded in the NFC-enabled device, consumers are likely to feel more comfortable getting on board with the technology in this sector, something Rees believes is important for success:

"Working in the transport sector gives us the best chance to improve the frequency of customers' [NFC] usage, and we're very excited about it.

"It made sense to work with the banks first [to develop NFC infrastructure] but transport is a really important sector for the technology to help get people using it on a daily basis.

"We're also looking at options in the merchant loyalty sector, which we see as a place where consumers will get the value of using their NFC-capable mobile, to get deals and vouchers, straight away."

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