NFC TimesThe premier source for news, analysis and commentary on
Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

U.S. mobile carrier Sprint plans to make NFC a major focus at its 11^th annual developers' conference, to be held Nov. 2 to 4 in Silicon Valley–part of a big push the telco is making to roll out the technology.

Research in Motion has launched a new Blackberry handset with built-in NFC support, part of its lower-end Curve series. It not yet clear which telcos will introduce NFC services with the phone and when, however.

U.S.-based American Express, long silent on its plans for NFC, has been making its interest in the technology known of late.

LONDON – Google plans to launch its Google Wallet in at least one major European city during the first half of 2012, said Osama Bedier, Google’s vice president of payments, who discounted talk of a coming NFC wallet war in either the United States or Europe.

The Isis joint venture, led by big U.S. mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless, has announced the location of its first NFC pilot next year, Salt Lake City, Utah. And NFC Times has learned that a second pilot city is also planned, which likely will be Austin, Texas.

Sprint, the third largest U.S. mobile carrier, is planning to launch NFC services before the end of the year, a spokeswoman for the telco confirmed to NFC Times.

A consortium of major U.S. mobile operators continues to make preparations for launching mobile-payment services to subscribers, although one operator in the group, Sprint, is pulling back from the project, sources told NFC Times.