China Mobile, a telecommunications operator, has signed an agreement with payment service provider UnionPay to offer payment systems based on NFC technology embedded in mobile phones.
Through this deal, China will become a major provider of NFC payments mainly in the US and Europe allowing powered and non-powered devices to share small amounts of data, reported Global Times.
The deal will allow SIM cards house the NFC chips, but they will not have any pre-installed bank apps, limiting the telecom operators’ control of the system.
Additionally, China will now see an explosion in NFC payments, which will accompany its already-flourishing mobile payments sector.
Meanwhile, UnionPay and China’s telecoms operators have been preparing the infrastructure and support for a launch and have also tested NFC payments on Beijing public transport.
