China Unicom selects Gemalto in China's first NFC payment service

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, announced that its UpTeq NFC SIM card has been selected by China Unicom to secure its mobile wallet programme. China Unicom is the nation's second-largest wireless operator, with more than 220 million subscribers, of which over 60 million are on 3G. The Unicom Merchants' Bank mobile wallet is the first NFC payment service being launched in China, in a joint collaboration between China Unicom and China Merchants' Bank (CMB) for the mobile wallet itself.

China Unicom's mobile wallet enables consumers to make purchases at food and beverage outlets, including retailers and merchants who accept China Union Pay's QuickPass contactless cards. There are currently over 162 000 QuickPass point-of-sale terminals in Shanghai that are compatible with the mobile wallet. The mobile wallet enables China Unicom subscribers with a CMB credit card to securely store their card details in the SIM cards of their NFC-enabled mobile phones. Gemalto's UpTeq NFC SIM is already chosen by mobile operators in 25 NFC projects globally and provides banking-grade security equivalent to an integrated-chip payment card.

The UpTeq NFC SIM is designed as a high-end security device to handle the processing, storage and verification of confidential and sensitive data. It contains an expanded capacity for hosting a broad range of NFC services that can include payment as well as transportation, logical and/or physical access and loyalty programmes. In addition, it enables mobile network operators to easily deploy and manage new services and install additional applications post-issuance. This unique flexibility is key to attracting more service providers looking to harness NFC technologies and to ensure successful deployment and adoption of NFC services beyond payments.

"Following China's decision to adopt NFC, 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. Our experience in over 50 mobile NFC deployments around the globe places us well to support China Unicom's rollout of its Unicom Merchants' Bank mobile wallet to tens of millions of customers. Gemalto's UpTeq NFC SIM can also readily support an expanded ecosystem of NFC services to provide significant value add to consumers."

Gemalto NFC projects include KDDI, in Japan, the Singapore Consortium, ISIS and Chase, in the US, as well as Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, in Europe.