Telefónica Digital and the BlackBerry‘s manufacturer Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) are conducting a pilot program on using near field communications (NFC) with plans to launch the service in the next year.
First, only Telefónica’s employees will be able to trial. In collaboration with local banks and retailers the Spanish group will roll out the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry to 350 employees at its headquarters in Spain. Company plans to extend the project to more employees around the world, but did not reveal when it could happen.
The chairman and CEO of Telefonica Digital, Matthew Key, said in statement that “trials such as this are important to ensuring a great customer experience and they look forward to seeing the launch of commercial wallet services in several markets next year.
Those taking part in the trial will be able to pay by tapping their BlackBerry smartphones against a reader. Employees that are part of the NFC pilot project will also be able use their BlackBerry smartphone (in lieu of a security card) to gain physical access to the Telefónica headquarters office.
The Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry currently supports NFC-enabled smartphones BlackBerry Bold™ 9900, BlackBerry Curve™ 9360 and BlackBerry Curve™ 9380, all of which run the new BlackBerry 7 operating system.
According to Telefónica, the BlackBerry solution was chosen for this pilot because of the security that the platform brings. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 smartphones have received certification for NFC payments and are compatible with the UICC/SWP protocol which, when used with Telefónica SIM cards, provides a secure platform for NFC use.
RIM is in charge to support the advancement of NFC and its many applications in the market.
The Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry makes use of SIM-based NFC capabilities. The application replicates a physical wallet, showing the different cards available to the user. Once the user has selected a card, they are offered a range of options including making transactions, getting account balances and receiving confirmations from the bank.
Additional partners participating in the pilot include banking and financial institutions, retail and food stores, gas stations and others.
Earlier October, Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry Bold™ 9900 and BlackBerry Curve™ 9360 smartphones were certified by MasterCard Worldwide as PayPass-approved devices.
The certification was granted on the basis of the BlackBerry smartphones meeting the functionality, interoperability and security requirements of MasterCard.
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