Banka Koper, a Slovenia-based bank, is conducting a field trial of SIM-based NFC mobile payments services in Slovenia, in association with an international consortium of payment and wireless providers.

Cassis International, Inside Contactless, Sagem Orga and Sagem Wireless, in cooperation with Mobitel, the mobile service provider in Slovenia, have provided Banka Koper with the payment infrastructure and applications for this trial, which will run through June 2010.

Using their Mobitel handsets, participants in the trial will be able to make purchases at any of the merchant locations in Slovenia that accept MasterCard and Maestro PayPass contactless payment cards. Trialists will also benefit from a set of interactive mobile services based on ‘smart posters’, including contextual information, advertisements and coupons.

Banka Koper’s payment service will be provisioned over-the-air onto a single-wire protocol SIM card. Both the MasterCard M/Chip application and Mobitel’s single-wire protocol NFC SIM card have been developed by Sagem Orga. The NFC-compliant Mobitel handset, manufactured by Sagem Wireless, incorporates Inside’s MicroRead NFC solution, which handles communication with NFC terminals, tags and other NFC handsets, and also includes Inside’s Wave-Me applet for interaction with smart posters.

Gojmir Nabergoj, senior advisor at Banka Koper, said: “We aim to leverage smart card and mobile technologies to enable simpler and more secure payments, and to offer value added products which really makes a difference to their customers.”

Jagodic Marko, service unit manager at Mobitel, said: “Mobitel has extensive experience of innovative mobile services, especially in the field of payment. Thanks to our industrial partners we were able to create a new experience of mobile payment.”

Jean-Philippe Betoin, head of Europe at Cassis International, said: “This project again proves the maturity of the GSMA PayBuyMobile initiative. Mobitel and Banka Koper are demonstrating that NFC is a deployable technology.”

Charles Walton, executive vice president at Inside Contactless, said: “We are pleased to have been invited to participate in this NFC trial, which is further demonstration of Inside’s technological know-how and commitment to NFC payment and application solutions.”

Cyril Caillaud, NFC product line manager at Sagem Wireless, said: “The trial of these new connected services by Banka Koper and Mobitel will really demonstrate the benefits of fast, secure contactless payment. We’re delighted to be delivering the device that will connect the consumer with these mobile payments and help drive the take-up of NFC technology in the future.”