Consortium to define NFC-based mobile services

Responding to the growing adoption of NFC solutions in cellphones, a pan-European consortium of companies, universities and user groups has been created to build an open architecture for the development, deployment and use of NFC-based applications in mobile handsets. The consortium spun off from the ’Store Logistics and Payment with NFC’ (StoLPaN) project co-funded by the European Commission (EU), Information Society Technologies program.

"StoLPaN opens up new prospects for a forward looking framework for applying secure and easy-to-use mobile NFC applications, within the payment, mobile, transit and ticketing industries," said G?rald Santucci, head of the ICT for enterprise networking unit of EU’s Information Society and Media DG. "This should help ensure that they—and their end-users—really benefit from the full potential of these technologies."

To address the interoperability issues of NFC apps in cellphones, various usage cases will be defined within the StoLPaN framework and will be tested throughout Europe. The cases will aid the identification of business rules, which will define the roles and responsibilities of NFC segment players. Results will then be submitted to industry standardization bodies.

Based on the findings, the consortium will identify the technical and security specifications for NFC-enabled apps. They will also explore the possibility of connection to existing contactless platforms. Likewise, the project team will demo the implementation of the business rules and technical requirements in existing contactless infrastructures. An NFC host application will also be developed to support a slew of customer services such as payment, access control, ticketing, loyalty, connectivity and the retail check-out process.

The StoLPaN project team will issue its first version of business rules and technical requirements early this year. Alongside this, the team will also submit the first version of the host application, demonstrating its use with transport and closed payment applications. The StolPaN project is set for completion by 2009.

Members of the consortium include Motorola, NXP Semiconductors, Auto-ID-Lab St. Gallen, Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Bull, Baker&McKenzie, Consorzio Triveneto S.P.A., Consult Hyperion, Deloitte, Fornax, Libri, Safepay Systems, Sun Microsystems, T-Systems, as well as the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Budapest Tech John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics.

"We aim to create an ecosystem that affords any NFC user the opportunity to access any NFC service," said Marc de Jong, executive VP and general manager, NXP. "Successful completion of the StoLPaN project will enable a truly mobile lifestyle for consumers and will also create value for the whole chain of handset manufacturers, mobile operators, financial services providers and retailers."