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Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of
communication protocols A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchron ...
that enables
communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be used to bootstrap more-capable wireless connections. Like other "
proximity card A proximity card or prox card also known as a key card or keycard is a contactless smart card which can be read without inserting it into a reader device, as required by earlier magnetic stripe cards such as credit cards and contact type sma ...
" technologies, NFC is based on
inductive coupling In electrical engineering, two conductors are said to be inductively coupled or magnetically coupled when they are configured in a way such that change in current through one wire induces a voltage across the ends of the other wire through el ...
between two so-called
antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...
present on NFC-enabled devices—for example a smartphone and a printer—communicating in one or both directions, using a frequency of 13.56 MHz in the globally available unlicensed
radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...
ISM band The ISM radio bands are portions of the radio spectrum reserved internationally for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) purposes, excluding applications in telecommunications. Examples of applications for the use of radio frequency (RF) ener ...
using the
ISO/IEC 18000-3 ISO/IEC 18000-3 is an international standard for passive RFID item level identification and describes the parameters for air interface communications at 13.56 MHz. The target markets for MODE 2 are in tagging systems for manufacturing, logistics, r ...
air interface standard at data rates ranging from 106 to 424 kbit/s. The standards were provided by the NFC Forum. The forum was responsible for promoting the technology and setting standards and certifies device compliance. Secure communications are available by applying encryption algorithms as is done for credit cards and if they fit the criteria for being considered a
personal area network A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network for interconnecting electronic devices within an individual person's workspace. A PAN provides data transmission among devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and personal digital assi ...
. NFC standards cover communications protocols and data exchange formats and are based on existing
radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
(RFID) standards including
ISO/IEC 14443 ISO/IEC 14443 ''Identification cards -- Contactless integrated circuit cards -- Proximity cards'' is an international standard that defines proximity cards used for identification, and the transmission protocols for communicating with it. Standa ...
and
FeliCa FeliCa is a contactless Radio-frequency identification, RFID smart cards, smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for ''Felicity Card''. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, ...
. The standards include ISO/IEC 18092 and those defined by the NFC Forum. In addition to the NFC Forum, the
GSMA The GSM Association (commonly referred to as 'the GSMA' or ''Global System for Mobile Communications'', originally ''Groupe Spécial Mobile'') is an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More ...
group defined a platform for the deployment of GSMA NFC Standards within mobile handsets. GSMA's efforts include Trusted Services Manager,
Single Wire Protocol The Single Wire Protocol (SWP) is a specification for a single-wire connection between the SIM card and a near field communication (NFC) chip in a cell phone. It was under final review by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). ...
, testing/certification and secure element. NFC-enabled portable devices can be provided with
application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
, for example to read electronic tags or make payments when connected to an NFC-compliant system. These are standardized to NFC protocols, replacing proprietary technologies used by earlier systems. A patent licensing program for NFC is under deployment by France Brevets, a patent fund created in 2011. This program was under development by Via Licensing Corporation, an independent subsidiary of
Dolby Laboratories Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is an American company specializing in Noise reduction#In audio, audio noise reduction, Audio data compression, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and ...
, and was terminated in May 2012. A platform-independent
free and open source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
NFC library, , is available under the
GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...
. Present and anticipated applications include contactless transactions, data exchange and simplified setup of more complex communications such as
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
. In addition, when one of the connected devices has Internet connectivity, the other can exchange data with online services.


History

NFC is rooted in
radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
technology (known as RFID) which allows compatible hardware to both supply power to and communicate with an otherwise unpowered and passive electronic tag using radio waves. This is used for identification, authentication and tracking. Similar ideas in advertising and industrial applications were not generally successful commercially, outpaced by technologies such as
QR codes A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about the ...
,
barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
s and
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
RFID tags. * May 17, 1983: The first patent to be associated with the abbreviation "
RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
" was granted to Charles Walton. * 1997: Early form patented and first used in ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' character toys for
Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...
. The patent was originally held by Andrew White and Marc Borrett at Innovision Research and Technology (Patent WO9723060). The device allowed data communication between two units in close proximity. * March 25, 2002:
Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
and
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
agreed to establish a technology specification and created a technical outline.
Philips Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXP) is a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company employs approximately 31,000 people in more than 30 countries. NXP reported revenue of $11.06 billion in 2 ...
applied for the six fundamental patents of NFC, invented by the Austrian and French engineers Franz Amtmann and Philippe Maugars who received the
European Inventor Award The European Inventor Award(formerly European Inventor of the Year Award, renamed in 2010), are presented annually by the European Patent Office, sometimes supported by the respective Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by the Eur ...
in 2015. * December 8, 2003: NFC was approved as an
ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...
/
IEC The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
standard and later as an ECMA standard. * 2004: Nokia, Philips and Sony established the NFC Forum * 2004: Nokia launched NFC shell add-on for Nokia 5140 and later
Nokia 3220 The Nokia 3220 is a GSM, Series 40 mobile phone from Nokia. The Nokia 3220 was introduced on 31 May 2004 as a "fun" device with LED lights and Xpress-on covers. It was the first entry-level phone that offered full access to the Internet, with a ...
models, to be shipped in 2005. * 2005: Mobile phone experimentations in transports, with payment in May in
Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...
(Nokia) and as well validation aboard in October in
Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
with
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
and payment in shops in October in
Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
) with first reception of "Fly Tag" informations * 2006: Initial specifications for NFC Tags * 2006: Specification for "SmartPoster" records * 2007: Innovision’s NFC tags used in the first consumer trial in the UK, in the Nokia 6131 handset. * 2008:
AirTag AirTag is a tracking device developed by Apple. AirTag is designed to act as a key finder, which helps people find personal objects (e.g. keys, bags, apparel, small electronic devices, vehicles). To locate lost items, AirTags use Apple's crowds ...
launched what it called the first NFC SDK. * 2009: In January, NFC Forum released Peer-to-Peer standards to transfer contacts,
URLs A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...
, initiate Bluetooth, etc. * 2009: NFC first used in transports by
China Unicom China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd. () or China Unicom () (CUniq in short) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. Started as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a range of services in ...
and Yucheng Transportation Card in the tramways and bus of
Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
on 19 January 2009, then implemented for the first time in a metro network, by China Unicom in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
on 31 December 2010. *2010: Innovision released a suite of designs and patents for low cost, mass-market mobile phones and other devices. * 2010:
Nokia C7 The Nokia C7-00 is a smartphone from the Nokia Cseries. It was introduced on 14 September 2010 and released in Q4 2010. The C7-00 features a , 640 x 360 pixel capacitive touchscreen and features 720p video recording, and was also the world's fir ...
: First NFC-capable smartphone released. NFC feature was enabled by software update in early 2011. * 2010:
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
Nexus S The Nexus S 4G is a smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung and manufactured by Samsung Electronics for release in 2010. It was the first smartphone to use the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system, and the first Android device to su ...
: First Android NFC phone shown * May 21, 2010:
Nice, France Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
launches, with "Cityzi", the "Nice City of contactless mobile" project, the first in Europe to provide inhabitants with NFC bank cards and mobile phones (like Samsung Player One S5230), and a "bouquet of services" covering transportation (tramways and bus), tourism and student's services * 2011: Google I/O "How to NFC" demonstrates NFC to initiate a game and to share a contact, URL, app or video. * 2011: NFC support becomes part of the
Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typic ...
mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on ...
with the release of Symbian Anna version. * 2011:
Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets ...
devices are the first ones certified by MasterCard Worldwide for their PayPass service * 2012: UK restaurant chain EAT. and Everything Everywhere (
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
Mobile Network Operator), partner on the UK's first nationwide NFC-enabled smartposter campaign. A dedicated mobile phone app is triggered when the NFC-enabled mobile phone comes into contact with the smartposter. * 2012: Sony introduced NFC "Smart Tags" to change modes and profiles on a Sony smartphone at close range, included with the
Sony Xperia P The Sony Xperia P is an Android smartphone produced by Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one ...
Smartphone released the same year. * 2013: Samsung and
VISA Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...
announce their partnership to develop mobile payments. * 2013: IBM scientists, in an effort to curb fraud and security breaches, develop an NFC-based mobile authentication security technology. This technology works on similar principles to dual-factor authentication security. * October 2014: Dinube becomes the first non-card payment network to introduce NFC contactless payments natively on a mobile device, i.e. no need for an external case attached or NFC 'sticker' nor for a card. Based on
Host card emulation Host card emulation (HCE) is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity (access, transit and banking) cards using only software. Prior to the HCE architecture, near field communication (NFC) ...
with its own ''application identifier'' (AID), contactless payment was available on
Android KitKat Android KitKat is the codename for the eleventh Android mobile operating system, representing release version 4.4. Unveiled on September 3, 2013, KitKat focused primarily on optimizing the operating system for improved performance on entry-level ...
upwards and commercial release commenced in June 2015. * 2014:
AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
,
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...
and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...
released
Softcard JVL Ventures, LLC d/b/a Softcard (formerly Isis Mobile Wallet), was a joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon which produced a mobile payments platform known as ''Softcard'', which used near-field communication (NFC) technology to allo ...
(formerly ISIS mobile wallet). It runs on NFC-enabled Android phones and
iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the 4S. Following a number of notable leaks, the iPhone 4 was first unvei ...
and
iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the 6th generation iPhone, succeeding both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and preceding both the iPhone 5S and 5C. It was formally unveiled as part of a press e ...
when an external NFC case is attached. The technology was purchased by
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and the service ended on March 31, 2015. * November 2015:
Swatch Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which i ...
and Visa Inc. announced a partnership to enable NFC financial transactions using the "Swatch Bellamy" wristwatch. The system is currently online in Asia, through a partnership with
China UnionPay UnionPay (), also known as China UnionPay () or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme ...
and Bank of Communications. The partnership will bring the technology to the US, Brazil, and Switzerland. * November 2015: Google’s
Android Pay Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rolling ...
function was launched, a direct rival to Apple Pay, and its roll-out across the US commenced. Ultrawide Band (UWB) another radio technology has been hailed as a future possible alternatives to NFC technology due to further distances of data transmission, as well as Bluetooth and wireless technology.


Design

NFC is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a separation of 10 cm or less. NFC operates at 13.56 
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
on
ISO/IEC 18000-3 ISO/IEC 18000-3 is an international standard for passive RFID item level identification and describes the parameters for air interface communications at 13.56 MHz. The target markets for MODE 2 are in tagging systems for manufacturing, logistics, r ...
air interface and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to 424 kbit/s. NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as unpowered tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards. NFC peer-to-peer communication is possible, provided both devices are powered. NFC tags contain data and are typically read-only, but may be writable. They can be custom-encoded by their manufacturers or use NFC Forum specifications. The tags can securely store personal data such as debit and credit card information, loyalty program data, PINs and networking contacts, among other information. The NFC Forum defines four types of tags that provide different communication speeds and capabilities in terms of configurability, memory, security,
data retention Data retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. Although sometimes interchangeable, it is not to be confused with the Data Protection Act 1998. The differen ...
and write endurance. As with
proximity card A proximity card or prox card also known as a key card or keycard is a contactless smart card which can be read without inserting it into a reader device, as required by earlier magnetic stripe cards such as credit cards and contact type sma ...
technology, NFC uses
inductive coupling In electrical engineering, two conductors are said to be inductively coupled or magnetically coupled when they are configured in a way such that change in current through one wire induces a voltage across the ends of the other wire through el ...
between two nearby loop antennas effectively forming an air-core
transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...
. Because the distances involved are tiny compared to the
wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...
of
electromagnetic radiation In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic field, electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, inf ...
(radio waves) of that frequency (about 22 metres), the interaction is described as near field. An alternating
magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
is the main coupling factor and almost no power is radiated in the form of
radio wave Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300 gigahertz (GHz) and below. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (short ...
s (which are electromagnetic waves, also involving an oscillating
electric field An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field fo ...
); that minimises interference between such devices and any radio communications at the same frequency or with other NFC devices much beyond its intended range. NFC operates within the globally available and unlicensed
radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...
ISM band The ISM radio bands are portions of the radio spectrum reserved internationally for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) purposes, excluding applications in telecommunications. Examples of applications for the use of radio frequency (RF) ener ...
of 13.56 MHz. Most of the RF energy is concentrated in the ±7 kHz bandwidth allocated for that band, but the emission's
spectral width In telecommunications, spectral width is the wavelength interval over which the magnitude of all spectral components is equal to or greater than a specified fraction of the magnitude of the component having the maximum value. In optical communicati ...
can be as wide as 1.8 MHz in order to support high data rates. Working distance with compact standard antennas and realistic power levels could be up to about 20 cm (but practically speaking, working distances never exceed 10 cm). Note that because the pickup antenna may be quenched in an
eddy current Eddy currents (also called Foucault's currents) are loops of electrical current induced within conductors by a changing magnetic field in the conductor according to Faraday's law of induction or by the relative motion of a conductor in a mag ...
by nearby metallic surfaces, the tags may require a minimum separation from such surfaces. The ISO/IEC 18092 standard supports data rates of 106, 212 or 424
kbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
. The communication takes place between an active "initiator" device and a target device which may either be: ; Passive: The initiator device provides a carrier field and the target device, acting as a
transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...
, communicates by modulating the incident field. In this mode, the target device may draw its operating power from the initiator-provided magnetic field. ; Active: Both initiator and target device communicate by alternately generating their own fields. A device stops transmitting in order to receive data from the other. This mode requires that both devices include power supplies. NFC employs two different codings to transfer data. If an active device transfers data at 106 kbit/s, a modified Miller coding with 100%
modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
is used. In all other cases
Manchester coding In telecommunication and data storage, Manchester code (also known as phase encoding, or PE) is a line code in which the encoding of each data bit is either low then high, or high then low, for equal time. It is a self-clocking signal with no DC ...
is used with a modulation ratio of 10%. Every active NFC device can work in one or more of three modes: ; NFC card emulation: Enables NFC-enabled devices such as smartphones to act like smart cards, allowing users to perform transactions such as payment or ticketing. See
Host card emulation Host card emulation (HCE) is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity (access, transit and banking) cards using only software. Prior to the HCE architecture, near field communication (NFC) ...
; NFC reader/writer: Enables NFC-enabled devices to read information stored on inexpensive NFC tags embedded in labels or smart posters. ; NFC peer-to-peer:Enables two NFC-enabled devices to communicate with each other to exchange information in an
ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...
fashion. NFC tags are passive data stores which can be read, and under some circumstances written to, by an NFC device. They typically contain data ( between 96 and 8,192 bytes) and are read-only in normal use, but may be rewritable. Applications include secure personal data storage (e.g.
debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit en ...
or
credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...
information,
loyalty program A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features and ...
data,
personal identification number A personal identification number (PIN), or sometimes redundantly a PIN number or PIN code, is a numeric (sometimes alpha-numeric) passcode used in the process of authenticating a user accessing a system. The PIN has been the key to facilitat ...
s (PINs), contacts). NFC tags can be custom-encoded by their manufacturers or use the industry specifications.


Security

Although the range of NFC is limited to a few centimeters, standard plain NFC is not protected against
eavesdropping Eavesdropping is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather information. Etymology The verb ''eavesdrop'' is a back-formation from the noun ''eaves ...
and can be vulnerable to data modifications. Applications may use higher-layer
cryptographic protocol A security protocol (cryptographic protocol or encryption protocol) is an abstract or concrete protocol that performs a security-related function and applies cryptographic methods, often as sequences of cryptographic primitives. A protocol describe ...
s to establish a secure channel. The RF signal for the wireless data transfer can be picked up with antennas. The distance from which an attacker is able to eavesdrop the RF signal depends on multiple parameters, but is typically less than 10 meters. Also, eavesdropping is highly affected by the communication mode. A passive device that doesn't generate its own RF field is much harder to eavesdrop on than an active device. An attacker can typically eavesdrop within 10 m of an active device and 1 m for passive devices. Because NFC devices usually include
ISO/IEC 14443 ISO/IEC 14443 ''Identification cards -- Contactless integrated circuit cards -- Proximity cards'' is an international standard that defines proximity cards used for identification, and the transmission protocols for communicating with it. Standa ...
protocols,
relay attack A relay attack (also known as the two-thief attack) in computer security is a type of hacking technique related to man-in-the-middle and replay attacks. In a classic man-in-the-middle attack, an attacker intercepts and manipulates communications ...
s are feasible.Timo Kasper et al. 2007 For this attack the adversary forwards the request of the reader to the victim and relays its answer to the reader in real time, pretending to be the owner of the victim's smart card. This is similar to a
man-in-the-middle attack In cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle, monster-in-the-middle, machine-in-the-middle, monkey-in-the-middle, meddler-in-the-middle, manipulator-in-the-middle (MITM), person-in-the-middle (PITM) or adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) ...
. One code example demonstrates a relay attack using two stock commercial NFC devices. This attack can be implemented using only two NFC-enabled mobile phones.


Standards

NFC standards cover communications protocols and data exchange formats, and are based on existing RFID standards including
ISO/IEC 14443 ISO/IEC 14443 ''Identification cards -- Contactless integrated circuit cards -- Proximity cards'' is an international standard that defines proximity cards used for identification, and the transmission protocols for communicating with it. Standa ...
and
FeliCa FeliCa is a contactless Radio-frequency identification, RFID smart cards, smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for ''Felicity Card''. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, ...
. The standards include ISO/IEC 18092 and those defined by the NFC Forum.


ISO/IEC

NFC is standardized in ECMA-340 and ISO/IEC 18092. These standards specify the modulation schemes, coding, transfer speeds and frame format of the RF interface of NFC devices, as well as initialization schemes and conditions required for data collision-control during initialization for both passive and active NFC modes. They also define the
transport protocol Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
, including protocol activation and data-exchange methods. The air interface for NFC is standardized in: * ISO/IEC 18092 / ECMA-340—''Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol-1'' (NFCIP-1) * ISO/IEC 21481 / ECMA-352—''Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol-2'' (NFCIP-2) NFC incorporates a variety of existing standards including
ISO/IEC 14443 ISO/IEC 14443 ''Identification cards -- Contactless integrated circuit cards -- Proximity cards'' is an international standard that defines proximity cards used for identification, and the transmission protocols for communicating with it. Standa ...
Type A and Type B, and
FeliCa FeliCa is a contactless Radio-frequency identification, RFID smart cards, smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for ''Felicity Card''. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, ...
. NFC-enabled phones work at a basic level with existing readers. In "card emulation mode" an NFC device should transmit, at a minimum, a unique ID number to a reader. In addition, NFC Forum defined a common data format called ''NFC Data Exchange Format'' (NDEF) that can store and transport items ranging from any
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
-typed object to ultra-short RTD-documents, such as
URLs A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...
. The NFC Forum added the ''Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol'' (SNEP) to the spec that allows sending and receiving messages between two NFC devices.


GSMA

The GSM Association (GSMA) is a trade association representing nearly 800 mobile telephony operators and more than 200 product and service companies across 219 countries. Many of its members have led NFC trials and are preparing services for commercial launch. GSM is involved with several initiatives: * Standards: GSMA is developing certification and testing standards to ensure global interoperability of NFC services. * ''Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative'': Seeks to define a common global approach to using NFC technology to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems. * On November 17, 2010, after two years of discussions, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile launched a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
to develop a platform through which
point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...
payments could be made using NFC in cell phones. Initially known as Isis Mobile Wallet and later as
Softcard JVL Ventures, LLC d/b/a Softcard (formerly Isis Mobile Wallet), was a joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon which produced a mobile payments platform known as ''Softcard'', which used near-field communication (NFC) technology to allo ...
, the venture was designed to usher in broad deployment of NFC technology, allowing their customers' NFC-enabled cell phones to function similarly to credit cards throughout the US. Following an agreement with—and IP purchase by—Google, the Softcard payment system was shuttered in March, 2015, with an endorsement for its earlier rival,
Google Wallet Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rollin ...
.


StoLPaN

StoLPaN (Store Logistics and Payment with NFC) is a pan-European consortium supported by the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
's
Information Society Technologies The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...
program. StoLPaN will examine the potential for NFC local wireless mobile communication.


NFC Forum

NFC Forum is a non-profit industry association formed on March 18, 2004, by
NXP Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXP) is a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company employs approximately 31,000 people in more than 30 countries. NXP reported revenue of $11.06 billion in 2 ...
,
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
and
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
to advance the use of NFC wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. Standards include the four distinct tag types that provide different communication speeds and capabilities covering flexibility, memory, security, data retention and write endurance. NFC Forum promotes implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services. As of January 2020, the NFC Forum had over 120 member companies. NFC Forum promotes NFC and certifies device compliance and whether it fits in a
personal area network A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network for interconnecting electronic devices within an individual person's workspace. A PAN provides data transmission among devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and personal digital assi ...
.


Other standardization bodies

GSMA defined a platform for the deployment of GSMA NFC Standards within mobile handsets. GSMA's efforts include,
Single Wire Protocol The Single Wire Protocol (SWP) is a specification for a single-wire connection between the SIM card and a near field communication (NFC) chip in a cell phone. It was under final review by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). ...
, testing and certification and secure element. The GSMA standards surrounding the deployment of NFC protocols (governed by
NFC Forum Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be u ...
) on mobile handsets are neither exclusive nor universally accepted. For example, Google's deployment of
Host Card Emulation Host card emulation (HCE) is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity (access, transit and banking) cards using only software. Prior to the HCE architecture, near field communication (NFC) ...
on
Android KitKat Android KitKat is the codename for the eleventh Android mobile operating system, representing release version 4.4. Unveiled on September 3, 2013, KitKat focused primarily on optimizing the operating system for improved performance on entry-level ...
provides for software control of a universal radio. In this HCE Deployment the NFC protocol is leveraged without the GSMA standards. Other standardization bodies involved in NFC include: *
ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...
/ SCP (Smart Card Platform) to specify the interface between the SIM card and the NFC chipset. *
EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for " Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created th ...
Co for the impacts on the EMV payment applications


Applications

NFC allows one- and two-way communication between endpoints, suitable for many applications. NFC devices can act as electronic
identity document An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any documentation, document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID c ...
s and
keycard A keycard lock is a lock operated by a keycard, a flat, rectangular plastic card. The card typically, but not always, has identical dimensions to that of a credit card or American and EU driver's license. The card stores a physical or digital ...
s. They are used in
contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsun ...
systems and allow
mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...
replacing or supplementing systems such as credit cards and
electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, and ...
smart cards. These are sometimes called ''NFC/CTLS'' or ''CTLS NFC'', with ''contactless'' abbreviated as ''CTLS''. NFC can be used to share small files such as contacts and for bootstrapping fast connections to share larger media such as photos, videos, and other files.


Commerce

NFC devices can be used in contactless payment systems, similar to those used in credit cards and
electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, and ...
smart cards and allow mobile payment to replace/supplement these systems. In Android 4.4, Google introduced platform support for secure NFC-based transactions through
Host Card Emulation Host card emulation (HCE) is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity (access, transit and banking) cards using only software. Prior to the HCE architecture, near field communication (NFC) ...
(HCE), for payments, loyalty programs, card access, transit passes and other custom services. HCE allows any Android 4.4 app to emulate an NFC smart card, letting users initiate transactions with their device. Apps can use a new Reader Mode to act as readers for HCE cards and other NFC-based transactions. On September 9, 2014,
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
announced support for NFC-powered transactions as part of
Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a credit ...
. With the introduction of iOS 11, Apple devices allow third-party developers to read data from NFC tags. As of 2022, there are five major NFC apps available in the UK: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Barclays Contactless Mobile and Fitbit Pay. The UK Finance's UK Payment Markets Summary 2021 looked at Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay and found 17.3 million UK adults had registered for mobile payment (up 75% from the year before) and of those, 84% had made a mobile payment.


Bootstrapping other connections

NFC offers a low-speed connection with simple setup that can be used to bootstrap more capable wireless connections. For example,
Android Beam Android Beam is a discontinued feature of the Android mobile operating system that allowed data to be transferred via near field communication (NFC). It allowed the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube vi ...
software uses NFC to enable pairing and establish a
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
connection when doing a file transfer and then disabling Bluetooth on both devices upon completion. Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry and Sony have used NFC technology to pair Bluetooth headsets, media players and speakers with one tap. The same principle can be applied to the configuration of Wi-Fi networks.
Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy (, stylised as SΛMSUNG Galaxy since 2015 (except Japan where it omits the Samsung branding), previously stylised as Samsung GALAXY; abbreviated as SG) is a series of computing and mobile computing devices that are designed, ...
devices have a feature named S-Beam—an extension of Android Beam that uses NFC (to share
MAC Address A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking techno ...
and
IP addresses An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
) and then uses
Wi-Fi Direct Wi-Fi Direct (formerly Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer) is a Wi-Fi standard for peer-to-peer wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, router, or Internet connection. Wi- ...
to share files and documents. The advantage of using Wi-Fi Direct over Bluetooth is, that it permits much faster data transfers, running up to 300 Mbit/s.


Social networking

NFC can be used for
social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
, for sharing contacts, text messages and forums, links to photos, videos or files and entering multiplayer
mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
s.


Identity and access tokens

NFC-enabled devices can act as electronic
identity document An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any documentation, document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID c ...
s found in Passports and ID cards, and
keycard A keycard lock is a lock operated by a keycard, a flat, rectangular plastic card. The card typically, but not always, has identical dimensions to that of a credit card or American and EU driver's license. The card stores a physical or digital ...
s for the use in
Fare card A stored-value card (SVC) is a payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. This means no network access is required by the payment collection terminals as funds ...
s,
Transit pass A transit pass (North American English) or travel card (British English), often referred to as a bus pass or train pass etc. (in all English dialects), is a ticket that allows a passenger of the service to take either a certain number of pre-purch ...
es, Login Cards, Car key and
Access badge An access badge is a credential used to gain entry to an area having automated access control entry points. Entry points may be doors, turnstiles, parking gates or other barriers. Access badges use various technologies to identify the holder of ...
s . NFC's short range and encryption support make it more suitable than less private RFID systems.


Smartphone automation and NFC tags

NFC-equipped smartphones can be paired with
NFC Tag TecTiles are a near field communication (NFC) application, developed by Samsung, for use with mobile smartphone devices. Each TecTile is a low-cost self-adhesive sticker with an embedded NFC Tag. They are programmed before use, which can be don ...
s or stickers that can be programmed by NFC apps. These programs can allow a change of phone settings, texting, app launching, or command execution. Such apps do not rely on a company or manufacturer, but can be utilized immediately with an NFC-equipped smartphone and an NFC tag. The NFC Forum published the
Signature Record Type Definition In near field communications the NFC Forum Signature Record Type Definition (RTD) is a security protocol used to protect the integrity and authenticity of NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format) Messages. The Signature RTD is an open interoperable specific ...
(RTD) 2.0 in 2015 to add integrity and authenticity for NFC Tags. This specification allows an NFC device to verify tag data and identify the tag author.


Gaming

NFC has been used in
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
starting with '' Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure''. These are customizable figurines which contain personal data with each figure, so no two figures are exactly alike. Nintendo's
Wii U GamePad The Wii U GamePad is the standard game controller for Nintendo's Wii U home video game console. Incorporating traits from tablet computers, the GamePad has traditional input methods (such as buttons, dual analog sticks, and a D-pad), touchscreen ...
was the first console system to include NFC technology out of the box. It was later included in the
Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
range (being built into the New Nintendo 3DS/XL and in a separately sold reader which uses
Infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
to communicate to older 3DS family consoles). The
amiibo (, ; officially stylized as amiibo; plural: ''Amiibo'') is a toys-to-life platform by Nintendo, which was launched in November 2014. It consists of a wireless communications and storage protocol for connecting figurines to the Wii U, Ninten ...
range of accessories utilize NFC technology to unlock features.


Sports

Adidas Telstar 18 The Adidas Telstar 18 was the official match ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which was held in the Russian Federation. It was designed by the company Adidas, a FIFA Partner and FIFA World Cup official match ball supplier since 1970, and based ...
is a soccer ball that contains an NFC chip within. The chip enables users to interact with the ball using a smartphone.


Bluetooth comparison

NFC and
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
are both relatively short-range communication technologies available on
mobile phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
. NFC operates at slower speeds than Bluetooth and has a much shorter range, but consumes far less power and doesn't require pairing. NFC sets up more quickly than standard Bluetooth, but has a lower transfer rate than
Bluetooth low energy Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE, colloquially BLE, formerly marketed as Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) aimed at novel applications in ...
. With NFC, instead of performing manual configurations to identify devices, the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established in less than .1 second. The maximum data transfer rate of NFC (424 kbit/s) is slower than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s). NFC's maximum working distance of less than 20 cm reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception, making it particularly suitable for crowded areas that complicate correlating a signal with its transmitting physical device (and by extension, its user). NFC is compatible with existing passive RFID (13.56 MHz ISO/IEC 18000-3) infrastructures. It requires comparatively low power, similar to the Bluetooth V4.0 low-energy protocol. However, when NFC works with an unpowered device (e.g. on a phone that may be turned off, a contactless smart credit card, a smart poster), the NFC power consumption is greater than that of Bluetooth V4.0 Low Energy, since illuminating the passive tag needs extra power.


Devices

In 2011, handset vendors released more than 40 NFC-enabled handsets with the Android mobile operating system.
BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
devices support NFC using BlackBerry Tag on devices running BlackBerry OS 7.0 and greater. MasterCard added further NFC support for PayPass for the Android and BlackBerry platforms, enabling PayPass users to make payments using their Android or BlackBerry smartphones. A partnership between
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
and
Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...
added a '
payWave Visa Inc. (; stylized as ''VISA'') is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded cred ...
' application on the Galaxy S4 smartphone. In 2012,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
added native NFC functionality in their
mobile OS A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablet computer, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal computing, personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobi ...
with
Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was su ...
, as well as the
Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...
operating system. Microsoft provides the "Wallet hub" in Windows Phone 8 for NFC payment, and can integrate multiple NFC payment services within a single application. In 2014,
iPhone 6 The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are smartphones that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the eighth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, and were announced on September 9, 2014, and relea ...
was released from
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
to support NFC. and since September 2019 in
iOS 13 iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and HomePod lines. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developer ...
Apple now allows NFC tags to be read out as well as labeled using an NFC app.


Deployments

, hundreds of NFC trials had been conducted. Some firms moved to full-scale service deployments, spanning one or more countries. Multi-country deployments include
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
's rollout of NFC technology to banks, retailers, transport, and service providers in multiple European countries, and
Airtel Africa Airtel Africa plc, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is a multinational company that provides telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East, Central and West Africa. Airtel Africa is majority owned by ...
and
Oberthur Technologies Oberthur Technologies was a French digital security company, providing secure technology solutions for Smart Transactions, Mobile Financial Services, Machine-to-Machine, Digital Identity and Transport & Access Control. As of 2008, Oberthur's reve ...
deploying to 15 countries throughout Africa. * China Telecom (China's 3rd largest mobile operator) made its NFC rollout in November 2013. The company signed up multiple banks to make their payment apps available on its SIM Cards. China telecom stated that the wallet would support coupons, membership cards, fuel cards and boarding passes. The company planned to achieve targets of rolling out 40 NFC phone models and 30 Mn NFC SIMs by 2014. * Softcard (formerly Isis Mobile Wallet), a joint venture from Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile, focuses on in-store payments making use of NFC technology. After doing pilots in some regions, they launched across the US. *
Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
launched the NFC-based Vodafone SmartPass mobile payment service in Spain in partnership with Visa. It enables consumers with an NFC-enabled
SIM card file:SIM-Karte von Telefónica O2 Europe - Standard und Micro.jpg, A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout) file:Sim card.png, A smart card taken from a Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM mobile phone file:Simkarte NFC SecureE ...
in a mobile device to make contactless payments via their SmartPass credit balance at any POS. * OTI, an Israeli company that designs and develops contactless microprocessor-based smart card technology, contracted to supply NFC-readers to one of its channel partners in the US. The partner was required to buy $10MM worth of OTI NFC readers over 3 years. *
Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...
launched virtual wallet Suretap to enable users to make payments with their phone in Canada in April 2014. Suretap users can load up gift cards and prepaid MasterCards from national retailers. *
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
's first workforce smart card uses NFC. * As of December 13, 2013
Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service rest ...
TimmyME
BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was o ...
Application allowed users to link their prepaid Tim Card to the app, allowing payment by tapping the NFC-enabled device to a standard contactless terminal. *
Google Wallet Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rollin ...
allows consumers to store credit card and store loyalty card information in a virtual wallet and then use an NFC-enabled device at terminals that also accept MasterCard PayPass transactions. * Germany, Austria, Finland, New Zealand, Italy, Iran, Turkey and Greece trialed NFC ticketing systems for public transport. The Lithuanian capital of
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
fully replaced paper tickets for public transportation with ISO/IEC 14443 Type A cards on July 1, 2013. * NFC sticker-based payments in Australia's Bankmecu and card issuer Cuscal completed an NFC payment sticker trial, enabling consumers to make contactless payments at Visa payWave terminals using a smart sticker stuck to their phone. * India was implementing NFC-based transactions in box offices for ticketing purposes. * A partnership of Google and Equity Bank in Kenya introduced NFC payment systems for public transport in the Capital city Nairobi under the branding
BebaPay BebaPay was a form of electronic ticketing platform in Nairobi, Kenya, that was developed by Google in partnership with Equity Bank. The product was launched in April 2013, after one year of piloting. Overview Bebapay platform worked using ...
. * January 2019 saw the start of trial using NFC-enabled Android mobile phones to pay public transport fares in
Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...
.


See also

*
Campus card A campus credential, more commonly known as a campus card or a campus ID card is an identification document certifying the status of students, faculty, staff or other constituents as members of the institutional community and eligible for access ...
* CIPURSE *
Device-to-device Device-to-Device (D2D) communication in cellular networks is defined as direct communication between two mobile users without traversing the Base Station (BS) or core network. D2D communication is generally non-transparent to the cellular network ...
*
EZ-link The EZ-Link card is a rechargeable contactless smart card and electronic money system that is primarily used as a payment method for public transport such as bus and rail lines in Singapore. A standard EZ-Link card is a credit-card-sized stor ...
*
FeliCa FeliCa is a contactless Radio-frequency identification, RFID smart cards, smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for ''Felicity Card''. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, ...
*
Object hyperlinking Object hyperlinking is a term that refers to extending the Internet to objects and locations in the real world. Object hyperlinking aims to extend the Internet to the physical world by attaching tags with URLs to tangible objects or locations. Thes ...
*
Poken Poken is a cloud-based event management platform, utilized by trade shows and exhibitions, corporate and association events, as well as sports and youth events. The modular platform includes features and services such as registration and badging, ...
*
RuBee RuBee ( IEEE standard 1902.1) is a two way active wireless protocol designed for harsh environment and high security asset visibility applications. RuBee utilizes longwave signals to send and receive short (128 byte) data packets in a local region ...
*
Smart keychain A keychain (also key fob or keyring) is a small ring or chain of metal to which several keys can be attached. The length of a keychain allows an item to be used more easily than if connected directly to a keyring. Some keychains allow one or b ...
* TecTiles *
TransferJet TransferJet is a close proximity wireless transfer technology initially proposed by Sony and demonstrated publicly in early 2008. By touching (or bringing very close together) two electronic devices, TransferJet allows high speed exchange of data. ...


Notes


References

* *


External links

* A summary video of near-field communication {{authority control Articles containing video clips Bandplans Ecma standards ISO standards Mobile telecommunications Wireless