Announcements by Singapore's two largest mobile network operators last month that they will pair up with the country's two electronic-purse schemes to launch trials of Near Field Communication could break new ground for the technology in Asia. The island-nation's largest mobile operator, SingTel, said it will join with e-payments firm NETS for an internal trial involving a reported 50 employees this year. It then will launch a trial with about 200 actual subscribers late in 2007 or early next year. The trial participants will be able to download a NETS payment application over the air and could store S$500 (US$328) in the purse. They could then tap their handsets as they do contact/ess cards to make purchases at 400 merchant locations equipped with NETS contactless readers. Users will be able to also top up the purse over the network to the tune of S$40 per day from preregistered credit cards.
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