3GSM will be the setting of the latest large-scale demonstration of Near Field Communication Technology (NFC) -- the easy-to-use short range wireless technology. Royal Philips and Telefonica Moviles Espana,a Spanish mobile operator, will demonstrate the simplicity of NFC technology by providing 200 selected attendees of the 3GSM World Congress with NFC-enabled Samsung SGH-X700 mobile phones to be used in a variety of applications throughout the conference and exhibition area. With the NFC-enabled Samsung SGH-X700 mobile phones, the 200 participants can conduct various transactions throughout the Congress, including secure payment and exhibition and conference access, simply with the swipe of their mobile phones.

Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, NFC is a combination of contactless identification and interconnection technologies that enables wireless short-range communication between mobile devices, consumer electronics, PCs and smart objects. NFC offers a simple, touch-based solution that allows consumers to exchange information and to access content and services in an intuitive way.

Combining the functions of a contactless reader, a contactless card and peer-to-peer functionality on a single chip, NFC opens up a myriad of new opportunities to our consumer lifestyles. It is an open interface platform that allows fast and automatic set-up of wireless networks, which also works as a virtual connector for existing cellular, Bluetooth and wireless 802.11 devices.

NFC is compatible with Sony's FeliCa card and the broadly established contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, which is used in Philips' MIFARE technology.

To drive development and adoption of NFC, Philips, Sony and Nokia established the NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association which promotes implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services. The NFC Forum has currently more than 70 members around the globe including MasterCard International, Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co, Ltd, (Panasonic), Microsoft, Motorola, NEC Corporation, Renesas Technology Corp., Samsung, Texas Instruments and Visa International.

Japanese is one of the pioneer in mobile payment, read more about it here

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