WATERLOO – Research In Motion has kicked off a pilot program with Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica on a digital wallet for NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones.
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology allows consumers to make transactions, exchange digital content, and connect electronic devices with a touch. The Telefonica Wallet for BlackBerry makes use of SIM-based NFC capabilities to replicate 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 or receiving confirmations from the bank.
Select retail, food stores, and gas stations will join banking and financial institutions in the pilot, which will be rolled out to other international markets next year.
Approximately 350 Telefonica employees at the company’s headquarters in Distrito Telefonica, Spain will take part in the NFC pilot project. They will also be able use their BlackBerry smartphone (in lieu of a security card) to gain physical access to the Telefonica headquarters office.
"RIM is committed to supporting the advancement of NFC and its many applications in the market," said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie, in Wednesday's announcement. "We have a strong partnership with Telefonica Group and we are very proud to participate in this important pilot, which allows people to use their BlackBerry smartphone in place of separate physical cards for mobile payments and building access."
“We are getting ever closer to the point where our customers will be able to take the contents of their wallets and put them on their mobiles," said Matthew Key, Telefonica Digital chairman and CEO. "Trials such as this are important to ensuring a great customer experience and we look forward to seeing the launch of commercial wallet services in several markets next year."
The Telefonica Wallet for BlackBerry currently supports the following NFC-enabled smartphones: BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380, all of which run the new BlackBerry 7 operating system.
