EU drives RFID

The European Craft and SME Employers' Organisation is rolling out a radio frequency identification (RFID) project across six European countries, reports EU Business News.

The goal is to boost the adoption of RFID technology by SME communities, while at the same time creating business opportunities for innovative RFID solution providers in the EU.

"The potential benefits of RFID technology are vast and stakeholders are becoming more and more aware of these," says Sebastiano Toffaletti, coordinator of the project. "However, the adoption of RFID on a large scale by European SMEs has not materialised yet.”

The Telekom Austria Group has revealed a prototype of a telephone booth with an integrated charging station to charge electric vehicles, states TeleGeography.

Charging stations will offer the possibility for drivers to pay to charge their cars via their mobile phones using text messages, paybox or RFID.

The company currently operates 13 500 telephone booths countrywide, of which 700 are multimedia stations, and by the end of 2010 a total of 30 charging stations will be on stream.

Smartrac a manufacturer of RFID technology, has appointed Dato' Tan Soo Hee as the company's chief operating officer, says RFID Solutions Online.

In his role, he will take over responsibility for the operations of the production facilities worldwide.

He joins Smartrac from Infineon Technologies where he held the position as managing director and has 26 years experience in the RFID industry.