Technology based company ‘NTT DOCOMO Inc’. and global payments industry leader’MasterCard Worldwide’ have together announced a global business alliance for contact-less payments, through compatible DOCOMO smartphones. The companies are aiming at a launch in the first half of the financial year ending in the month of March 2014.
Both the companies will be expanding DOCOMO’s iD mobile credit payment system for acceptance at MasterCard PayPass merchant locations across the world. The innovative payment system will be available to DOCOMO customers using smartphones equipped with a contact-less chip for the Osaifu Keitai services using near field communications (NFC) technology.
With the help of the joint collaboration between DOCOMO and MasterCard, DOCOMO customers will be able to make iD brand payments at about 500,000 iD terminals in Japan as of August 2012. Berg Insight, an analysts firm said that the global base of the terminals which are ready with NFC points are expected to grow to 43.4 million units in the year 2017.
On the other hand, MasterCard PayPass is gaining strong momentum worldwide with increasing adoption across merchant categories such as dining, merchants retail and entertainment. Even when DOCOMO customers are travelling across the world they can make easy purchases through PayPass merchants by waving the smartphone over the reader.