China Mobile Guangdong branch and the local transport operator in Guangzhou plan to launch their pilot of contactless ticketing and payment using NFC phones later this month, according to Card Technology. This will be the second NFC trial in China, following the Xiamen’s test in late June.

China Mobile Guangdong branch and the vendors tested the application among employees in Guangzhou in May and June. The next phase of the trial will pilot contactless transit ticketing and retail purchasing with about 500 subscribers using Nokia 3220 phones, which come embedded with an NFC chip and separate secure chip in a detachable shell. The secure chip will store a prepaid ticketing and e-cash application, the same one that runs on the contactless Yang City card issued by the transit operator in the city. Commuters in and around Guangzhou use the card about 3 million times a day, mainly to cover bus, subway, ferry and taxi fares. But about 5% of the transactions are for nontransit payment, such as purchases at some restaurants, including McDonalds, convenience stores and supermarkets, as well as entrance to some museums and the zoo.

Many other cities in China have contactless transit card programs, some of which may expand to retail purchasing, like the cards in Guangzhou and Xiamen. So, successful NFC pilots in these two cities could translate into eventual NFC rollouts in China, say backers of the trials.

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