E-Kart collaborates with Giesecke & Devrient to supply SIM cards for NFC project of Turkcell and Garanti Bank

Corporate IT Update, Jan 21, 2008

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Turkcell (NYSE: TKC), a mobile operator in Turkey, and Turkish bank Garanti Bank have selected E-Kart, a provider of smart card solutions in Turkey, as their technology partner for a trial beginning in autumn 2007 for mobile payments using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

NFC is a wireless radio frequency technology through which mobile phones and other mobile devices function as contactless credit cards or tickets.

According to the company, E-Kart is working in collaboration with German smart cards producer Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) to supply NFC-enabled SIM cards. In addition, the solution for the secure uploading and administration of the payment application and the user data is provided by Venyon, a joint venture between G&D and Nokia, which specialises in the secure management of NFC applications over the mobile network.

In the trial, approximately 100 Turkcell and Garanti employees and customers will be provided with an NFC-enabled mobile phone that they can use to make payments by holding the phone to an NFC reader. The contactless MasterCard PayPass credit card application is stored and enabled on the SIM card from G&D and the SIM card is linked to the NFC chip in the mobile device via the single wire protocol, the company said.

No financial details were disclosed.

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