From next year, Telecom Italia subscribers will be able to use a new generation of SIM card to purchase train and bus tickets, parking, theatre seats, concert tickets and hotel rooms from their mobile phone. For the launch of the service, the mobile operator has partnered with Movincom, an Italian consortium of companies and service providers working to promote mobile retailing.

Exactly how the new service works is not completely clear - but we will be publishing more details as soon as we have been able to get more information from Telecom Italia.

Here's how the official announcement explains things:

Starting in 2010, Telecom Italia will be building in an ad hoc application into its new Sim cards. Using this application, directly from their mobile phones, customers will be able to buy tickets for public transport and trains, pay for parking, purchase ski passes, buy tickets for a night out at the theatre or other events, and book hotel rooms.

Payment for these services will make use of methods offered by banks who sign up to the venture.

Using a SAT (SIM Application Toolkit) technology solution developed by Telecom Italia, this mobile commerce solution ensures high standards of security and authenticates the phone number from which each transaction originates. Specific menus integrated directly into the Sim card will guide customers through the process and make it quick and easy to make purchases. Orders placed for goods or services are dispatched by a text message generated automatically by the application. The text message features the purchaser’s cellphone number but no sensitive data about the selected method of payment.

The configuration-free service will be available on all mobile phones. It will be possible to update the service at any time, as and when new goods and services are added.

The Movincom Consortium currently has more than 650 operational services on board, a figure that is destined to rise to over 1,500 services in seven different market sectors. The consortium currently has the following members: Trenitalia, GTT (Turin), CTM Cagliari, 5T (Turin), Ataf (Florence), ATV (Verona), AMT Genova, TEP Parma, Ne-t (Gruppo APS Padua), Mobilità e Parcheggi (L’Aquila), Firenze Parcheggi, Telepark, Teleparking, CLUB Italia, AIPARK, ANAV, SIB - Società Impianti Bormio, Madonna di Campiglio, Monterosa ski, Funivie San Bernardo - La Thuile, Pila, Cervinia, Funivie Courmayeur Mont Blanc, Vittoria Assicurazioni, Coris Broker - 24h Assistance, Fratelli Carli, Charta-Vivaticket, BOL.it (the Mondadori Group’s online bookshop), SMS Hotels and Gruppo Prima. Many more companies are in the process of signing up.

“After becoming an indispensable personal communications tool,” says Oscar Cicchetti, Manager of Telecom Italia’s Domestic Market Operations, “the mobile phone is transitioning into a personal gateway to the internet, content and services, ranging from information to entertainment and professional applications. Leveraging the potential of the latest SIM cards and terminals, mobile phones are poised to become a powerful and secure transactions and identity management tool too. Today’s agreement paves the way for this by offering a broad range of services and a secure, straightforward and intuitive method for making purchases.”

“We know that security and a user-friendly purchase experience are vital to the development of mobile commerce via mobile phones. This agreement with Telecom Italia is a major step in that direction,” says Enrico Sponza, Deputy Chairman of the Movincom Consortium. “Banks will have access to an integrated set of operational processes and be able to fast track their entry into the mobile payment business.”

Twinlinx reports that its MyMax NFC sticker is now running with the new generation of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones due to be released on 6 October, and on earlier Windows Mobile 6.1 phones, following cooperation with Microsoft France. More later...

STM, the Societè de Transport de Montreal, has appointed Oberthur Technologies to supply contactless cards for use throughout the Montreal region's public transport network, including buses, the subway and commuter trains throughout the Greater Montreal area and the city of Quebec. The cards provide both a contact and a contactless interface, conform to the Calypso standard and will be delivered over four years.

"Customizable, secure microprocessor contactless cards represent the future of public transport," says Frederic Chevreton, General Manager of the Payment Product Line at Oberthur's Card Systems Division. "We are dedicated to providing these technologies to our transit customers and accompanying them into a new era of contactless technologies."

The new phone will be based on Toshiba's TG01 Windows Mobile handset. It will use NXP's PN544 NFC controller and will be compliant with the Single Wire Protocol standard. It will be produced in test volumes only to begin with but the companies have big plans for the future.

"As Toshiba plans its expansion into the global mobile phone market, Toppan Forms is taking advantage of NFC's capabilities as a globally adopted short-reange contactless technology to develop an optimised product for the world's mobile phone market," says Toppan. "The test phone currently under development will allow Toppan Forms to offer global telecoms operators and network providers with a one-stop environment for NFC related technology, which will ultimately help to drive new business model for NFC technology's expansion."

More details later on when the handset is likely to be available...

GuestLogix, the market leader in the supply of onboard retail solutions to airlines, is adding contactless payments acceptance to its point-of-service handheld devices and its retail transaction platform.

"The company's move to contactless and near field communications technologies opens the door to more secure and much faster payments onboard," says GuestLogix. "Flight attendants will be able to process sales in less time versus traditional handling while airlines will be able to greatly reduce credit card related fraud."

"Our new support for third generation payment technologies effectively changes the playing field for onboard retailing and merchandising," says Tom Douramakos, President and CEO of GuestLogix. "Carriers can now accomplish more sales in less time during flight without incurring additional risk."

A new version of Tetherball's sticker-based mobile marketing service, currently on test at Dairy Queen in the US, has been released. The new version of the company's Mobiquitous platform includes a number of enhancements to the level of analytics data available.

“Brands continue to test the mobile marketing waters, however, in this economic climate it’s difficult to justify the marketing spend on mobile without having the ability to truly measure its effectiveness,” says Jay Highley, President and COO of Tetherball. “Many mobile marketing solutions providers tout the effectiveness of mobile marketing, however, few, if any, can actually provide the detailed analyses to determine if mobile marketing really works. We’ve developed a robust solution that gives mobile marketers what they need to measure with pinpoint accuracy the results of their mobile marketing programs.”

Mobiquitous 2.0 provides detailed reporting at specific campaign level, geographic level or even for a specific time of day and provides clients with a real time window that can be used to make adjustments in real time and, therefore, leverage the real time nature of mobile marketing.

“We don’t believe there is any other provider in the marketplace today that offers this level of reporting and program support," Highley added. "What’s more, combining the power of Mobiquitous 2.0 with our unique RFID-based technology, which provides delivery of offers via SMS and redemptions via in-store POS terminals, eliminates fraud and allows our clients to measure performance via real time validation. Our clients are recognizing phenomenal results – program redemption rates of up to 50% − versus 1%-2% with online and traditional paper coupons. And, just as important, they’re able to justify their mobile marketing spend to C-level decision makers, which, in this economy, isn’t always an easy task. Brands should be looking to mobile partners that have demonstrated the ability to deliver mobile marketing programs that can be measured and tracked in real time.”

Gemalto's Taiwan-based data centre has achieved certification by MasterCard for its Trusted Service Manager (TSM) solution for NFC services.

"MasterCard works alongside vendors to offer secure NFC payment solutions to its issuing banks," says Andrew Smith, vice president at MasterCard's Mobile Centre of Excellence, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa. "We are pleased to collaborate with technological enablers like Gemalto that will allow financial institutions to rollout NFC MasterCard PayPass mobile services safely, adding ease to Taiwanese consumers` fast-paced lifestyles and spurring the growth of contactless payments in the market."

"The role of the Trusted Services Manager is to provide independent, secure channels for service providers to conveniently engage their customer base into the mobile world," added Tan Teck Lee, President of Gemalto Asia. "It is a role built on security, interoperability and trust, which facilitates business between mobile network operators and service providers."

www.gemalto.com, www.mastercard.com

According to the official announcement:

MoLo Rewards' technology, protected by an already issued US patent, allows consumers to interact with the point of sale (POS) and redeem within seconds every valid and applicable coupon within their "mobile wallet" with a single tap of the device at a contactless reader installed at the POS. The MoLo Rewards system automatically determines based on the consumer, store, and purchases, what coupons are valid and pushes the relevant coupons to the retailer. Once the transaction is complete, MoLo Rewards issues loyalty rewards which accrue allowing for the end user to obtain various goods and or services. Throughout the entire process, MoLo Rewards is able to track consumers creating a database that provides targeted coupons and other incentives specific to each consumer based on their shopping habits and location.

http://www.molorewards.com/

The NFC trial is taking place a year later than originally planned, Digi.no reports (in Norwegian), and a commercial launch is still expected to be two to three years away.

The telecoms giant has opted for an RF SIM-based solution (using SIM cards embedded with a second, contactless chipset) for its new mobile payments service, not #NFC, according to a report in Interfax-China (subscription required). More details soon...