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By the end of this month, consumers will be able to pay taxi fares and bills for purchases at retail outlets with mobile phones that are equipped with near field communication (NFC) capabilities.
NFC is a short range wireless communication technology that transmits data between a mobile device and a reader.
The transmitted data can be either an advertisement or payment info.
The new payment service, developed by a consortium including Gemalto, EZ-Link, DBS, Citibank, SingTel, StarHub and M1, offers credit, pre-paid or stored-value options for mobile phone users.
More than 30,000 retail points around the island will accept the new NFC payment service at its launch.
Retail outlets such as Watson's and G2000 as well as Comfort taxis will be among the first to adopt the new mobile payment service.
In addition to a phone with NFC capabilities, the service will require an NFC-enabled SIM card that will be available from the three telcos.
Consumers will just need to tap their smartphones against the NFC reader to make payment.
A password can be added for more security.
The maximum amount per transaction may be capped at $100 to begin with.
And the tap and pay mobile device services will also be tried out in public buses and the MRT system by the end of this year.
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