Telecom Lead Europe: Mobile major Nokia
announced Orange will be the first operator to offer the Lumia 610 NFC,
which can pair with NFC accessories and read NFC tags.
“Nokia continues to lead the field in NFC with this
latest implementation on the Windows Phone platform, in which we have the full
support of Orange. We’re bringing NFC right across our portfolio, and together
with our ever-growing range of NFC accessories we’re making it easy for people
to connect via a single tap. We’re also enabling operators and other service
providers to build NFC payment and ticketing solutions on top of our
smartphones,” said Ilari Nurmi, head of product marketing for Nokia’s Smart
Devices business unit.
The Lumia 610 NFC also has the hardware and software
enablers for the implementation of NFC payment and ticketing solutions, and has
been certified for contactless payments both with MasterCard PayPass
technology, and with Visa’s mobile application for payments at the point of
sale, Visa payWave.
Devices certified by MasterCard, such as the Lumia 610
NFC, go through a rigorous testing process by a MasterCard accredited
laboratory to ensure they will work seamlessly with the PayPass network.
“The Nokia Lumia smartphones have been very well
received by Orange customers. We are now going one step further and adding an
NFC-enabled handset to this popular range of devices, enabling people to use
contactless services via a single tap. Nokia is a natural fit for us regarding
NFC and, like Orange, has shown a very early commitment to the standard,”
said Yves Maitre, senior VP mobile multimedia & devices at Orange.
The Lumia 610 NFC is expected to be available early in
the third quarter of 2012.
Recently, Nokia Canada said that the Nokia Lumia 900 is available in Canada exclusively at
Rogers Communications.
The Nokia Lumia 900 is the first of Nokia’s Windows
Phone-based range to feature high-speed LTE connectivity.
