Taiwan Continues to Develop M-Payments with Far EasTone Pilot (June 18, 2013)
June 18, 2013
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., one of Taiwan’s largest telcos, is launching a mobile payments pilot in cooperation with Far Eastern International Bank and MasterCard. The program, scheduled to begin during the second half of 2013, will use near field communication (NFC) technology and be limited to mobile payments under NT$3,000 (US$100.37), according to reports.
A second stage of the pilot involving additional banks as well as Visa Inc.’s network is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, according to the Central News Agency.
Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this year approved an application by five domestic mobile carriers, which included Far EasTone, and transit card provider EasyCard Corp. to jointly run a platform for mobile payment-related apps.
More recently, Visa Taiwan last month launched a mobile payment card reader, Visa mPOS, enabling small merchants to process payment cards using mobile phones and tablets. With mPOS, Visa Taiwan is the latest big name to enter the mobile card reader arena, which has seen a spate of new products launched in markets across the globe over the past year.
