Chunghwa Telecom Selects Gemalto for NFC Trial with MasterCard and Four Leading Banks in Taiwan

Gemalto announces that its UpTeq NFC SIM embedded software and product has been selected by Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) to secure its NFC payment program. CHT is Taiwan’s largest mobile network operator with 10 million subscribers. The initiative, using the SIM as the secure element to safeguard mobile NFC transactions, was approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan, and is supported by leading Taiwanese banks Cathay United, Chinatrust Commercial, E.Sun, Taishin, as well as handset makers HTC Corp, Samsung, Sony(1).

CHT subscribers will be able to use their mobile phone for contactless payments at over 20,000 MasterCard PayPass point of sale readers across Taiwan including supermarkets, department stores and a fleet of taxis. The pilot also supports additional NFC services such as multiple credit and prepaid cards, loyalty cards, coupons, and ticketing.

Gemalto’s UpTeq NFC SIM is the tamper-proof secure element that provides banking-grade security for mobile contactless transactions.

“The strong support of the Gemalto local team helped us achieve first-to-market advantage in using the SIM to secure mobile payments,” said by Joseph Kuo, Director of Value Added Services CHT. “It is part of our strategy to ‘seed the market’ by equipping all of our subscribers with the UpTeq NFC SIM so we are ready for mass deployment of mobile contactless services.”

“MasterCard continues to lead the demands in Taiwan market by providing consumers with the most innovative payment technology and creating new opportunities for financial services,” said Julie Yang, head of Taiwan, MasterCard. “Gemalto’s UpTeq NFC SIM solution provides EMV-payment level of protection for mobile contactless transactions and also opens the door to a wealth of innovative NFC services beyond payments for the benefits of the consumers as well as business stakeholders in the value chain.”

“With leading partner banks bringing significant clout to the program, CHT is poised to play a leading role in the swift deployment of mobile NFC services,” added Michael Au, senior vice president of tzelecommunications at Gemalto Asia. “This will also spur new service providers to onboard the NFC ecosystem to offer a wide array of NFC services such as mass transit, access control and information download from smart posters.”