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Turkey’s largest mobile operator, Turkcell, may launch a mobile-payment service with a bank using SIM cards and flexible antennas, NFC Times has learned.

A Turkcell spokeswoman told NFC Times that the telco intends to commercially launch full NFC phones supporting the single-wire protocol standard, or SWP. This would allow payment and ticketing applications to be stored on SIM cards the telco issues.

But she confirmed that because of the scarcity of SWP-enabled phones, Turkcell has been evaluating and testing such “bridging technologies” as SIMs with external-flexible antennas, contactless microSD cards and iPhone attachments. The spokeswoman declined to confirm plans for any launch of contactless-mobile accessories, including SIMs with flexible antennas, however.

“The main objective of Turkcell is to start the commercial launch with standard SWP-enabled NFC phones supporting both payment and transit applications within this year,” the spokeswoman told NFC Times. “On the other hand, there is a reality about the SWP-enabled phones: Today only one model is in place in the market, which is the Samsung (S5230) Star.”

Any launch of contactless-mobile accessories by Turkcell would likely serve as a prelude to a real NFC launch later in the year or early next year.

A launch by Turkcell of mobile payment using SIMs with flexible antennas would allow it to stay even with competing mobile operator Avea. 

Avea last month announced with Garanti Bank plans to commercially launch a mobile-payment service in July using SIM cards linked to contactless chips and flexible antennas. Avea said it was targeting 100,000 users the first year.

The Avea SIMs will store a MasterCard PayPass application issued by Garanti. France-based smart card vendor Gemalto is providing the SIMs along with the flexible antenna product, called N-Flex. Subscribers wrap the antenna around their phone batteries. The product does not work in all phones.

Turkcell, one of Europe’s largest operators with more than 34 million subscribers, was said to be caught off guard by the Avea announcement. It, too, had been working on mobile payment with Garanti Bank, which is the most aggressive of Turkey’s banks in rolling out contactless cards.

Any launch of N-Flex by Turkcell would also involve a PayPass application and would likely involve Garanti Bank. PayPass is accepted at about 15,000 to 20,000 point-of-sale terminals in Turkey.

Around the time of the Avea-Garanti announcement last month, Cenk Bayrakdar, Turkcell’s chief product and service management officer, said in a press conference the telco planned to launch NFC by the end of 2010. Turkcell has developed its own mobile-wallet software and over-the-air platform for NFC, said the spokeswoman. 

She said the NFC launch could happen in early 2011. More SWP-enabled NFC phones are expected by early next year. Turkcell has held NFC trials with Garanti and AKbank over the past two years.