O2 gets 225 guinea pigs drunk by phone O2 has announced a trial of NFC-equipped Nokia handsets, which will incorporate an Oyster Card as well as a Barclaycard OneTouch contactless payment system, for 500 O2 customers. The much expected plan will not see all 500 will be able to use the OneTouch capability. The lucky subset (225) will get £200 pre-loaded to encourage …
Where does the profit come in, do the retailers pay or do I, is this an entirely benevolent payment method.
If it is any cost at all to me to pay, top up the balance or extract funds then I won't be doing it over real money.
Of course with the history of some ringtones selling at £1.50 each then stupidity may lose the battle but win the war.
How? It makes more sense if you're loyal to your service provider, but less if you like your handset and want to change provider. So it makes more sense for the *service providers*.
There has to be a standard to transfer whatever credit you have between secure stores, doesn't there? Or is this just another way to force "loyalty"? Personally I won't be taking "advantage" of this sort of service until I can be guaranteed to be able to move it off either handset or SIM card, same as I can port my number.
In the bad old days, I would have to go to great lengths to lose both my phone and my wallet. Now I can lose both in one simple step. Now that's progress!!!
I suppose Naomi Campbell could load it up with a few quid before launching it at a minion and avoid all that unpleasant litigation...
I remember a MONDEX trial that took place in Exeter about 5-7 years ago. If I remember rightly all the students there were given MONDEX cards as NUS cards and they could top them up at cashpoints in the city before using them to pay for stuff.
The end result? Nobody bothered because everyone has a debit card already - what's the point in having another card that you then have to load up with cash using your debit card?! The MONDEX cards were also accepted in less places than standard VISA debit, Maestro or Switch cards.
Until the day arrives where people can dispense with wallets altogether (i.e. when cash is no longer required *anywhere*) combining NFC payment with the phone is a bit pointless in my opinion - it's not much more effort to have a card in your wallet (like the Barclaycard) that is a combination of Oyster, debit and credit card.
They are defining two 'flat battery' working modes:
- one when the mobile seems shut down, but there is some power left
- one totally powerless, so the SIM and NFC chip are powered from the reader (like the typical RFID tag)
So there's still some hope left.
You can check it up here:
http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/gsma_nfc_tech_guide_vs1.pdf
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