Vodafone K.K. and FeliCa Networks today announced the agreement for introduction of Mobile FeliCa to Vodafone Handsets in Japan. Both companies aim to promote new mobile lifestyles with Mobile FeliCa compatible handsets Vodafone K.K. and FeliCa Networks, Inc. have agreed to collaborate in Japan on the introduction and promotion of Mobile FeliCa, a system which enables contactless IC card technology (“FeliCa”) in mobile handsets.
From the WWJ newsletter; This week’s news of lasting importance has to be Tuesday’s joint announcement from Sony, JR East and DoCoMo that DoCoMo’s “Mobile FeliCa” and JR East’s “Suica” epayment systems will be merged into a single “Mobile Suica” service. It hasn’t been easy for consumers to keep track of which device to use, where the cash was coming from (their on-card balance, their on-phone balance or other) and where the payment was going to. (For the full article, access the WWJ Newsletter archives here.)
East Japan Railway Company (JR East), NTT DoCoMo and Sony today announced they will offer a new service combining DoCoMo’s Mobile FeliCa smart-card handset with JR East’s Suica card starting in January 2006. The “Mobile Suica” service will enable FeliCa-enabled i-mode handsets to be used as Suica cards to board JR trains and make purchases in station shops and kiosks. With the news, two services that started as competitors for ecash settlement-on-the-go appear to have buried the yamakatana. Train-riding, phone-using consumers will have little excuse not to use FeliCa now. The companies said a test of the service will begin March 2005 using pilot i-mode FeliCa handsets.
According yesterday’s press release, KDDI will roll out FeliCa IC chip-enabled handsets by Q42005. DoCoMo launched four models that utilize Sony’s non-contact solution earlier this summer and has stated that all future phones must have this feature. The Mobile FeliCa system allows users to make small cybercash transactions; it can also be used as an ID pass to access secure areas and for marketing programs such as retail customer loyalty point programs.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company entered into a financing agreement with multimedia retail company GEO as part of a strategy to promote i-mode FeliCa service in the Japanese market. Under the agreement, NTT DoCoMo will provide financial assistance for the development of a network system to support i-mode FeliCa service at GEO outlets, and the installation of smart-card reader/writers at approximately 600 GEO shops beginning this November. In order to recoup its investment in the system, DoCoMo will collect a commission for each usage of the FeliCa service. GEO is a major player in the rental and sales of videos, DVDs, CDs and game software.
JCB, the international payment brand, AEON Credit Service, the retail-affiliated credit card company, and NTT DoCoMo jointly announced today that JCB and AEON have developed the QUICPay payment solution for cards with contactless IC chips. The QUICPay service is also compatible with NTT DoCoMo’s smart-card handsets. A trial project for the new QUICPay solution will begin this autumn.
