Following our earlier story about O2s NFC trial in London, the network operator has released details of the results of the trial. O2 says the results reveal clear consumer demand for such services that enable people to use their mobile phone to make purchases or pay for travel.  .
Nine out of ten triallists were happy using NFC technology on a mobile phone and 78% said they would be interested in using contactless services if available. Convenience, ease-of-use and the status of having such an innovative device were seen as the main benefits.
Interest in having Oyster (the pre-paid system for travelling around London on public transport) on their mobile phones was particularly strong, with 89% of triallists saying they were interested in taking this up. Over two-thirds of triallists also said that they would be interested in having the Barclaycard Visa payWave feature on their mobile in the future.
The O2 Wallet trial took place over six months between November 2007 and May 2008 and involved 500 triallists. It tested consumer demand for having cards you would normally carry in a wallet, such as Oyster and credit cards, available on a Nokia 6131 NFC mobile phone. To travel on Londons transport system or make purchases in retail stores, the user simply touched the phone against a reader. The trial involved a range of companies, including O2, Transport for London , Barclaycard, Visa Europe, TranSys, Nokia and AEG.
Imagine going out for the night and only taking your mobile phone with you says Claire Maslen, Head of NFC at O2. This trial takes us one step forward to achieving this by demonstrating that people want the convenience and practical benefits offered by services like the O2 Wallet.
According to O2, having Oyster on their mobile phone increased triallists use of public transport. 22% of triallists using Pay as You Go Oyster reported that they increased the number of journeys they made on public transport during the trial. Overall, almost 50,000 tube journeys took place using the O2 Wallet during the six month trial. 67% said that they found it more convenient to use than a standard Oyster card, while 87% said that availability of the service would be likely to influence their purchase of a new mobile phone.
A selection of triallists were provided with the Barclaycard Visa payWave application on the Nokia 6131 NFC mobile phone. Following the trial, over two-thirds stated that they would be interested in using cashless payments on their mobile in the future. In addition, 47% of triallists said that being able to use their mobile to make payments would influence their choice of handset in the future.
In theory, any card that you carry in your wallet could be on your mobile in the future, says Maslen. To make this a reality, we need to work across industry with a shared vision of what commercial services will look like.
To this end, says Maslen, O2 will be proposing an industry taskforce with the aim of bringing together mobile operators, handset manufacturers and key players from the transport and finance sectors to form the foundations for commercial NFC on mobile services.