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By
Jesse Cryderman
During his annual State of the Union address in late January, U.S. President
Barack Obama outlined an aggressive plan for the telecom industry: "Within the
next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next
generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans…this isn't
just about a faster Internet and fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting
every part of America to the digital age."
More than just political rhetoric, it’s safe to say that many of the
technologies that will support this next generation of networking have risen
from the pages of press releases to become commercialized solutions that we will
see—and feel—this year.
NFC Chips are Coming
Branded under the monikers swipe pay, proximity pay, contactless pay, or
tap-to-pay, mobile payment promises to do away with credit and debit cards. Some
call the transition to mobile pay the biggest change in payment processing in
the last 40 years. The mobile payment landscape is still ripe with business
opportunity in most areas of the world, in part because mobile devices equipped
with Near Field Commuication (NFC) chips that enable payment have not yet
arrived; at least not until this year. Apple’s next iPhone and iPad will be
equipped with NFC chips, as will the latest Google phone (Nexus S) Samsung
Galaxy S, and the latest Nokia handsets, all of which will see releases in the
2011.
Japan and South Korea have enjoyed this technology for several years. Now, with
the NFC-equipped devices on their way to the U.S., Europe, Canada, and South
America, the race to build a trusted and secure payment platform and
charging/processing system with widespread appeal is on.
Everything Everywhere, Britain’s
largest communications company,
recently announced it was rolling out
mobile payment in conjunction with
Barclaycard across the U.K. Gerry
McQuade, Chief Development Officer,
outlined the importance of the shift.
“This is the beginning of a revolution in
how we pay for things on the high
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Mobile payment promises to do away with credit and debit cards. |
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street. It’s a cultural shift that is as
important as the launch of the personal
credit card or ATMs,” said McQuade.
“We’re making something that’s been
talked about for many years a reality
and very soon, using your mobile to
buy a sandwich, a cinema ticket or in
time, even something bigger like a
computer will simply be the norm.”
In the U.S., service providers could have a play, but recent history shows agile
risk-takers have been the winners. While the Android platform is wildly popular,
Google Checkout, however, has not caught on. Amazon, with its one-click payment
and massive data management expertise might be a big player. But if the odds
don’t change, my bet is on Apple. Apple has both a standardized, culturally
integrated device and a popular trusted payment system via the iTunes market
(which incidentally just logged its 10 billionth download).
Duncan Stewart, the Director of Research in the areas of Technology, Media and
Telecommunications at Deloitte Canada, recently commented on the NFC boom in
680News:
"This will be big in the U.S., it will be big in Canada and it will be big in
Europe. This technology is already being used in other geographies, most notably
South Korea and Japan. It actually has been pretty popular for the past four or
five years and it's always been a bit of a surprise that it never caught on
here. But by the end of this year and certainly by the end of 2012 this will be
pervasive."
IPv6 Rollouts
Since the news broke that the last IPv4 addresses are being doled out,
large-scale transitions to IPv6 networks are just around the corner. And while
many companies have prepared for the transition to IPv6, countless others have
not. In response, the European IPv6 task force has been driving transitions
across Europe, and AT&T has jumped at the opportunity, creating and marketing a
full suite of consulting services to help businesses transition to the new
protocol.
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