The needle is finally moving in U.S. on mobile payments, after some startups have emerged in the space over the last year or so. Now Cingular is teaming with Nokia and financial institutions Citigroup and MasterCard Worldwide to trial new phones that have MasterCard PayPass contactless payment capability, reports News.com. The trial, which is expected to last three to six months, will help the companies evaluate the speed and convenience of this service.
The participants will receive a Nokia handset with “near-field communication” (NFC) technology and the MasterCard PayPass payment function built in. Participants will be able to make purchases wherever MasterCard’s PayPass is accepted by holding their phone near the card reader. The payment is then deducted from the subscriber’s account.
More about the trial on the service website, here. Also the official release here. Planned on the mobile content side: special content discovery smart posters located in the city featuring the trial symbol, with offers to download voice tones, movie trailers, and mobile phone wallpapers. Lots more details in the FAQs here.