NFC Payments Go Nationwide In France

Despite lofty original projections for NFC payments, the technology isn’t yet catching fire as some had anticipated.

Market analyst Gartner revised its growth expectations for the technology in June. Looking ahead to 2016, Gartner said that it expects the transaction volume of NFC payments to be just $22 billion. This figure was down from the $38 billion originally projected by organization, a decrease of 40 percent.

Still, despite the revised projections, NFC payments are making inroads in many markets. That now looks to be especially true in France.

The Société Générale launched its first national NFC mobile application in France on June 26. Together with Oberthur Technologies, which created the NFC smart cards for the program, the two companies unveiled the bank’s first NFC Visa payment service.

Following the successful test run, Société Générale will now process NFC payments nationwide.

“The NFC ecosystem is progressively maturing in France with several commercial deployments either planned or in progress in large cities,” Oberthur said in a statement announcing the launch.

This development was years in the making, and can be seen as the fruition of work started by the Association Française pour le Sans Contact Mobile (AFSCM), a union between three French telecommunications companies that began in 2007. This organization quickly grew, signing up board banks, retailers and technology specialists.

The first trials were conducted by AFSCM in Strasbourg and Caen. In 2010, the organization began focusing on Nice, which was declared France’s first mobile contactless city. That year, residents in the city were able to make payments at restaurants, local stores and supermarkets via NFC.

To date, more than 2.5 million NFC-enabled handsets are estimated to be in circulation in France, all of which use AFSCM technology. Estimates suggest that 26 mobile phone models are compatible with the technology. Samsung, LG, Sony, Motorola, Blackberry, Nokia and HTC have all integrated the technology into their products.

Still, other NFC-based applications could spur adoption and use. Roughly 12 cities have begun testing NFC payments for transport tickets. In June, Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeios launched U GO, an NFC app that could be used with additional mobile operators.

For more on this story, read the full report here.