The French Association Of Mobile Contactless (AFSCM) has announced that the number of NFC-equipped Cityzi smartphones has passed 2.5 million units at the end of 2012.
With this milestone France continues to be one of the European countries with the largest offer of NFC-equipped smartphones. Today, there are 26 smartphone models compatible with the French service Cityzi – compared to 14 last year.
Cityzi is a government-led initiative which groups mobile operators, public service providers and banks to create large-scale mobile NFC deployments across different cities in France. Until now, the program has led deployments in Nice, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and now Caen. Marseille and Paris are the next cities to be equipped with NFC-compatible POS terminals.
The difference with other countries is that the Cityzi program in France does not only push consumers to use their phones to pay contactlessly in shops, but also works with local authorities to prepare the whole city for a contactless experience. As a results, consumers are able to use their phone to shop but also to pay for their train ticket, their parking space or their public bycicle.
With the success of Cityzi, could government-led initiatives become the standard for NFC deployment in Europe ? This initiative has proved that if done correctly, when you combine all actors involved – mobile carriers, banks, public service providers – and add a dose of public money, NFC can become indeed very sucessful.
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