Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation's third-largest telecom service operator, said yesterday it plans to launch mobile payment services early next year, aiming for a slice of the growing market for mobile commerce.
The new service will allow Far EasTone subscribers to pay for shopping at 7-11 convenience stores and hypermarket chain Far Eastern Geant (
Users can also use their phones to pay for tickets to Kaohsiung's rapid transit system, which is set to start operations by the end of next year.
NFC technology
"By adopting global standards, experiences and technology, we aim to [stimulate] our domestic NFC [near-field communication] related industries [and] develop more advanced services and products to energize the telecommunications category," company president Jan Nilsson said.
Before a commercial rollout early next year, Far EasTone plans to do a pilot run for 200 consumers at the end of November. The service will be based on cutting-edge NFC technology, a long-awaited standard that the GSM association will unveil in November.
market potential
Nilsson expects the NFC business to take off over the next three years, with a potential user base of 2 billion to 3 billion worldwide.
Far EasTone is working with several manufacturers to provide NFC-enabled handsets, including Sagem Mobile.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is also scheduled to unveil its plan for NFC service next week in collaboration with Nokia Oyj, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商業銀行) and other partners.
In Asia, telecom companies in Singapore and Hong Kong have already launched NFC services.
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
RSS