NFC (Near Field Communication) is a short-range wireless communication standard that bundles a contactless chip with a contactless reader inside the mobile device. With NFC technology, consumers can simply wave or tap their phone within a few inches of a reader to transfer information to their mobile phone or to complete a mobile payment or transaction.

Designedto make life much easier for the end-user, provisioning NFC will require the carrier to send sensitive and confidential information to the mobile subscriber's handset.  While a few methods exist to provisionNFC, CellTrust believes SMS is the optimal choice because it uses the mobile communications control channel, which is separate from voice and data and operates regardless of the voice or data being used. The control channel has high resiliency, low bandwidth requirements and was designed for carriers to send specific commands and instructions to the handset via SMS. It is important to note that standard SMS is not secureand can be spoofed.  Provisioning NFC with CellTrust's SecureSMS APIs addresses spoofing with a fully authenticated, government-grade, highly encrypted, tamper-proof process, which also enables message sizes up to 5,000 characters.

"At Juniper Research we forecast that 1 in 6 subscribers globally will have NFC phones by 2014," said Howard Wilcox, Senior Analyst, Juniper Research."NFC is all about ease and convenience for users although the first question from users usually relates to security. This announcement by CellTrust is an important development to quell peoples' security concerns and enable the rollout of NFC enabled mobile wallets."

NFC hasthe potential to be a significant, pervasive technology, but the lack of NFC chips in existing handsets and security concerns have held the industry back from wide-scale integration of mobile payments on NFC-equipped devices. CellTrust's NFC solution could be a key driver in finally bringing mobile payments to NFC devices and unlocking the marketpotential for this technology.

CellTrust'sSecureSMS NFC APIs use Short Message Service Center (SMSC) and allow carriers to use their existing investment in SMS infrastructure while provisioning NFC, therefore a new NFC platform is not required. Carrierscan easily integrate with the SecureSMS APIs and send secure commands and instructions to the handset to provision NFC with all types of transactions, including adding and deleting credit cards. CellTrust's technology addresses the security gaps that exist with basic SMS, pavingthe way for NFC-enabled mobile devices to be securely used as an "electronic wallet."  

SecureSMSalso gives mobile network operators an added level of security for OTA (Over-The-Air) configuration and provisioning of mobile devices comparedto today's standard SMS infrastructure, which is not tamper proof and can be spoofed.

"CellTrust's SecureSMS NFC solution will make it easy for carriers and banks to implement and integrate NFC," said Sean Moshir,Chairman and CEO of CellTrust. "We believe the cost savings for mobile operators will be substantial, since they will be utilizing their existing SMSC infrastructure."

CellTrust's SecureSMS Appliance is the first global enterprise appliance to offer secure SMS communicationfor handset to handset and enterprise applications to handsets with highly encrypted end-to-end security in compliance with HIPAA, FISMA, and Sarbanes-Oxley, ensuring that information is kept private and only delivered to the intended recipient. CellTrust's award winning SecureSMS™ Appliance and Gateway reaches 200+ countries and over 800 carriers.  

CellTrustSecureSMS™ Appliance was named winner of many industry awards by CTIA, Mobile Marketing Association, RCR Magazine, MobileTrax, and more.

About CellTrust Corporation

CellTrust is a leading provider of secure mobile messaging and applications. CellTrust's patent

pending SecureSMS Gateway™ featuring the SecureSMS™ Applianceand a suite of mobile applications provide advanced secure mobile messaging and information management across 200+ countries and over 800 carriers.  CellTrust ensures the secure and trusted exchange of information on mobile devices to the financial services, healthcare, government, education, energy, information technology, marketing, and travel, among other global industries. For more information about CellTrust's Global, African, North American and Australian operations:

UNE, India – 97 per cent retailers in India don’t have a facility to deal with credit cards. They use cash. And that’s exactly what Nokia Money is designed to help with. By connecting those without bank accounts (the vast majority of people in India) with those who onlydeal in cash, Nokia Money is seeking to connect people in a totally new way – through transactions. We caught up with the head of Nokia Money alliances, Gerhard Romen to see how things are panning out since the service was first announced last September.

Romen was involved in the first banking trial of mobile services back in1999. That was a simple service that enabled customers of certain banksto check their account balance and trade stocks, all using a WAP-based service. By the mid noughties, individual banks started to release theirown mobile banking apps, but still with limitation to broad acceptance.It needed a fresh look and a real compelling  approach and strategy, Romen says and so he and his colleagues set about developing Nokia Money. 

"As mobile payments systems come to the U.S., product providers and regulators need to make sure that they are at least as safe for consumers to use as traditional credit card and debit card payments," said Michelle Jun, staff attorney for Consumers Union.  "It is critical that mobile payment systems are covered by strong rules to protect consumers from losing money because of fraud, processor error or a dispute with a retailer."

Federallaw protects consumers in the event that their credit card or debit card is lost, stolen or misused. But current protections are badly fragmented and don't apply to all new types of payments.

Credit cards carry a $50 limit on consumer responsibility for unauthorized use, but fraud on debit cards can expose cardholders to $500or more in liability, depending on how soon consumers report it. Voluntary payment network "zero liability" policies offered by debit card issuers contain significant loopholes.   Prepaid cards where funds are pooled from many cardholders may lack even the protections that apply to traditional debit cards.

Consumer rights involving disputes with merchants can be even more confusing.  Creditcards provide protections in case of bank errors, unauthorized use, anddisputes with merchants, but debit cards provide only protections for bank errors and unauthorized use, not for disputes with the merchant.  

These varying protections make it difficult for customers to determine what protections apply to new payment services.  If mobile payment transactions are backed by a credit card and appear on the credit card bill, then consumers are entitled to all available protections.  If the transaction amount is deducted from the consumer's deposit account with afinancial institution like with a debit card, it should receive the same protections as any other electronic fund transfer.  This means consumers receive a legal right to get back money for errors and theft, but not for a dispute with a merchant about the goods and services.

However,if the transaction is funded by a prepaid card, even the protections for unauthorized use may be missing, and there also will be no legal guarantee of protection in the event of a dispute with a merchant.  If the payment service is provided directly by the mobile carrier and the charges appear on the customer's cell phone bill, the way it is done in Japan and South Korea,the product might escape consumer protections entirely.  If the cell phone company asks the consumer to make a prepaid deposit to the phone company to cover future charges, protections also will be missing unlessthe contract provides them.

"Consumersshould not be expected to figure out what protections apply to each competing new payments venture," said Jun.  "Regardless of the technology or business organization involved, the same high level of consumer protections should be guaranteed by law and contract for any payment service.  Now that mobile payment ventures are emerging in the U.S., it's time to harmonize and extend consumer protections for all payment services."

ConsumersUnion called on companies offering mobile payment systems to include intheir contracts the full consumer rights provided under existing federal law for both debit and credit cards, and to provide true voluntary "zero liability" assurance for consumers without loopholes. The consumer group also noted that regulators need to use their current statutory authority to ensure that existing consumer protections are applied to all new payment methods. For example, the Federal Reserve Board should apply full debit card protections to payments backed via a prepaid card through a simple interpretation of Regulation E.

If the Federal Reserve Board fails to act, Consumers Union noted that the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created under the recently passed financial reform legislation has the authority to address unfair paymentpractices.