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Vodafone Group is set to launch a NFC-powered mobile wallet in 2013, across the various countries where Vodafone operates. The service will begin deployment in Q1, 2013, with launches in Germany and Spain, before rolling out to other European countries.
“We are committed to partnering with the best suppliers to offer customers the speed, simplicity and convenience of managing everyday transactions with a single wave or tap of their smartphones,” said Vodafone Group mCommerce director Christian Wirtz. “The consumer benefits of contactless payments are obvious and the industry in Europe is now at the beginning of rolling out a contactless infrastructure. The potential of mobile to transform existing industries – such as financial services, retail and transport- is enormous.”
Those aforemtnioned partners include mCommerce firm CorFire, leveraging its CorPay mobile wallet, and digital security company Gemalto, which will be providing its global Trusted Service Management platform. 
The mobile wallet might not be the only NFC service Vodafone has up its sleeve, however – according to Gemaltos release on the partnership, the company “will provide for the launch of a range of innovative services”.
We reached out to Vodafone to find out what these might be, but its response didnt specify, except to stress that any of these NFC service offerings will be compatible with the standards chosen by Weve, the UK operator joint venture previously known as Project Oscar.
