Gemalto wins China Unicom NFC supply deal

Digital security specialist Gemalto has announced a deal with Chinese operator China Unicom that will see the vendor supplying NFC-enabled SIM cards for Unicom’s upcoming mobile wallet platform. The operator, which has more than 220 million subscribers, is launching what Gemalto said was the first NFC payment service in China in collaboration with China Merchant’s bank.

The service will allow Unicom subscribers that also have a CMB credit card will be able to store the card’s payment details on their devices, and use it for small purchases, limited to food and beverage retailers in the initial stages.

“This launch is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of end-user services that will be developed,” said Michael Au, Senior Vice President of Telecommunications at Gemalto Asia. “The mobile payment sector in China is set for explosive growth in the near term.”

Banking and financial services was judged to be the vertical with the greatest revenue potential for mobile operators in the Telecoms.com Intelligence 2013 Global Survey. It was rated as having a high or very high potential by 76.1 per cent of respondents.