Talk of RFID seems to have died down over the past couple of years, but it could be making a comeback.
RFID, or radio frequency identification, now is being bandied about by some as an interim solution to achieving the nirvana of near-field communications (NFC). NFC, you see, is considered the ideal technology for doing mobile phone banking and payments – not just contactless credit- or debit-card payments, but transactions that can take place over mobile devices.
And yet, for some observers, RFID is not the best way to work toward NFC. What’s really required, an Aite Group senior analyst told Telephony, is “a solid business case for NFC and a level of merchant penetration for contactless payments that makes NFC viable.”
So waving that PayPass still is the best way to make contactless payments – and mobile payments? Not even part of the discussion. All industry sectors, including service providers, first have to be on board before NFC is launched, much less anything powered by RFID.
