Visa and Samsung have revealed the official mobile payment application for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will make its public debut next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The payment application uses Visa’s payWave NFC-based contactless payment technology. Customers pay for transactions by holding their phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase. Lower-value purchases are immediate, while purchases above £15 require a passcode.
It’s also possible for customers to check their transaction history and view their account balance via the app.
Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe, said “London 2012 is a unique opportunity to show the future of payments coming to life and leave a lasting legacy post-2012. The new mobile payment application is central to this showcase. We are also working with a number of partners to put live mobile payment technology into consumer hands. We’ve recently announced the certification of a number of major manufacturer handsets for NFC payments, which brings mainstream commercial mobile payments a step closer to reality.”