South Korea: SK Telecom Holds Small Flex-Antenna NFC Trial

 

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SeoulSouth Korea
Scope: 
Trial
Status: 
Completed
Launch: 
Oct 2010
Main Application: 
Service discovery
Mobile Operator: 
SK Telecom
Service Provider (application): 
SK Telecom (information on demand)
Merchants: 
N/A
Users: 
100
NFC Handsets: 
N/A
TSM*: 
N/A
Secure Element: 
SIM
Other Vendors: 
SK C&C (SIM overlay with flexible antenna, from unnamed fabricator), NXP Semiconductors–likely (NFC chip, Mifare Ultralight tags)

SK Telecom launched the small NFC trial using a bridge technology–a flexible antenna connected to a SIM overlay chip, enabling users to tap their Samsung Galaxy A Android smartphones on NFC tags embedded in stickers at bus stops, theaters, amusement parks and museums to receive information. The stickers also had 2-D bar codes the phones could read.

NFC Times Take: 

SK Telecom is merely dabbling with NFC with this trial. South Korea’s No. 1 mobile operator appears to be sticking with its proprietary contactless-mobile technology using dual-interface SIM cards and antennas built into specially equipped phones for now. It had been rumored to be likely to follow its competitor, KT, into the market with a commercial launch of full NFC phones this year. KT launched an NFC payment and ticketing project in October in an effort to win bragging rights as the world’s first NFC commercial launch.  But KT project only involves a Samsung feature phone with fewer than 100,000 devices. SK Telecom might launch NFC next year.

 

 

 
* Trusted Service Manager: Defined loosely to include companies or other organizations securely distributing, provisioning and managing applications, generally over the air, on secure elements in NFC mobile phones; or licensing their platforms for this purpose.
N/A: Not available or not applicable.
Last update: Dec. 2010

 

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