Phones as payment devices catching on in Japan

Mobile Internet, The, Dec, 2004

Japan's NTT DoCoMo said that since July, it has sold one million phones that can be used to make payments.

The phones use built-in smartcards that enable users to swipe the devices near point-of-sale terminals to pay for purchases. The wireless carrier launched the service last summer and there are about 13,000 shops and 2,700 vending machines in Japan that accept that sort of payment.

The system uses smartcard technology from Sony and operates over DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service. The wireless operator sells five separate handsets with the built-in payment capabilities.