'Contactless' services prove popular during trial

11:45 5th September 2008

Many mobile phone customers would be happy to pay for things such as travel or consumer goods using their hand-held device.

That is according to O2, which has conducted a study to determine the popularity of

mobile phones with near field communications (NFC).

This technology allows for access to contactless services, such as Oyster travel and wireless Barclaycard payments. An NFC-enabled phone can be put against paypoints to pay for things, in a similar way to an Oyster card.

O2 said that of the 500 Londoners who took part in the study, 90 per cent were happy with the services, while 78 per cent said they would be interested in using them again and 66 per cent said they would consider having the Barclaycard Visa payWave feature on their mobile.

Claire Maslen, head of O2 NFC, commented: "This trial takes us one step forward to achieving this by demonstrating that people want the convenience and practical benefits offered by services like the O2 Wallet."

During the six-month trial, almost 50,000 tube journeys took place using the O2 Wallet.

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