It was announced recently by Visa and Samsung that the two companies are planning to collaborate in bringing the latest wireless payment technology to the market as a part of their sponsoring plan for the London Olympics 2012. This plan, if it comes to be fulfilled, will enable the users of the Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handsets to make mobile payments wirelessly using NFC technology. This service is being planned for implementation before and during the games to enable payments which will be faster and more convenient.
The new strategic alliance between Samsung and Visa is designed for leaving a legacy in the market during and after 2012. The companies will try and promote the Near Field Communication technology and Visa’s contactless payment technology to ensure that both consumers and the retailers are well equipped to use these new services when they are made available. For making the payments using NFC, the users simply have to use the Visa mobile contactless application, select the option to pay and then wave the phone in front of the contactless portal at the checkout counter of the store.
Visa is at the moment working on a large scale industry-wide roll out of the contactless technology and to make this possible the company is working on deals with retailers and banks all over the world to garner more acceptance for the Visa contactless cards. There are already more than 60,000 locations in London where contactless payments are accepted and Visa plans to offer its services here during the run up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. In order to gain momentum for the technology, these services will also be offered in different parts of the world before the start of the games next year.
