Samsung and Visa have announced plans to introduce mobile payments to the UK in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Both companies are sponsors of the London 2012 event.
There’ll be a Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile phone provided to athletes and also available to the general public. The phone will also require a Visa-enabled SIM card to enable NFC contactless payments. To make payments, customers will open the Visa application on their phone, select ‘pay’ and then hold the phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase.
London already has more than 60,000 locations where contactless payments are accepted.
Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe, said “Visa, like Samsung, shares the vision of leveraging our Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship to leave a lasting legacy in the market for banks, retailers, mobile operators and consumers. We are not only breaking new ground for Olympic partnerships, we are committed to enabling consumers to connect with mobile and contactless payments technology for 2012 and beyond. We look forward to working with financial institutions and mobile operators alongside Samsung to make this initiative a success.”