NFC SIM swap

[GiorgioOlivari]

Hi All,

I am wondering if anyone could help as my issue is reaching very high level of frustration. I will recap below:

I have purchased a Sony Xperia Z3 form A Vodafome Store at the end of September. Knowing that is phone has an inbuilt NFC chip and that Vodafone offers a Vodafone Wallet service that allow users to pay through their NFC enabled devices, I activate said service. In the process I was notifed that I would need to swap to a NFC Simcard to be able to use the service without the NFC sticker (the phone is NFC enabled so I do not see why I would need the sticker).

I then went to the store where I purchased the phone (near Victoria Station, where the staff has been extremly helpful btw) to swap SIM. 

I was then told that, because I was on the old "Frontier" platform, the swap would not work, therefore I just had to wait to be migrated to the new system before I could activate a NFC Sim card and that they could not tell me if and when that would happen.

Finding this franky absurd, I contacted Vodafone tech support and I was told that I just had to go back to the store and that the swap would work. 

Went back to the store, did the swap: it did not work.

Called back Tech support, where I was told that I had been unlucky as that specific sim card was faulty and to go back and try again. 

Went back to the store (for the third time) to attempt with a new one and, guess what? It did not work.

So I called back tech support and I was told to call a specifc number from the store as they could direct store staff on how to do a workaround to make this work.

Went back to the store (for the FOURTH time): the number I was sent by tech support was the "Smart Pass" number where they had no idea of what I was talking about  nor techinical ability to help at all.

Called, again from the store, Tech support where I had to expalin the situation again to tech support (all together for the 10th time) and  I was transer to.. .the same guy at "Smart Pass" that did not have a clue!

I mean, seriuosly Vodafone? Is this how you roll out a service? Is this how you reward your early adopters?

Can someone help?

Thanks,

Giorgio

[hrym]

The main reason for the delay on using inbuilt NFC is the issue surrounding security.   At present, this is what the NFC SIM provides (Its name suggests that it provides the communication, but that isn't the case) and there are various things that have to be in place for the SIM to be supported on Vodafone.

There'as a lot of speculation over whether Apple Pay will change the market, but I suspect many of the same issues will apply.  I believe Google Wallet is alive and well in the US, but shows no sign of coming to Europe, where security requirements are higher.

Contactless payment is still in its infancy.  Barely a year ago, newspaper money pages were writing articles about how to get a non-contactless card - now they're onto how to ask for one!   NFC was one of those things manufacturers built into phones without really knowing what people would do with it.   As contactless payment becomes a killer application, a lot of the issues will be sorted and standardised; it just needs to gain critical mass and momentum.

[jeffkinn]

I'm pretty certain that Vodafone has zero influence over Visa and Mastercard or anyone else in the financial services industry worldwide.

[specialresident]

ive been told the only thing that needs to hapen is visa and master card to sertify the phone im using once thats done then im told i can use my phone to pay for stuff, If this is the canse then surely vodaphone and all the other service providers out there have some kind of discussion going on with visa and master card.  Im sure if the bosses of vodaphone, verison ect a large company telephone the bosses at visa or mastercard that theyyll answer the phone lol, i would cause well nfc is the future for paying and its here now just you companies involved aseem to be taking a unussually long time.

[hrym]

There's a bit more to it than that.  At present, there isn't sufficient security on the onboard NFC systems to satisfy the requirements of the payment industry, which is why the NFC SIM is required - it carries the necessary security elements.

Once a set of standards has been agreed, the phone manufacturers need to (and almost certainly will) include them withing the device itself.   However, this won't be on a country-by-country basis but will be international and getting everything in place for that isn't a quick process.   Contactless payment is quite widespread in the US, I believe, as the security requirements are less stringent - I believe they still use magnetic stripe cards, for instance.

One thing you can be fairly sure of is that there are a lot of players waiting to jump into this particular pool - the card providers, mobile networks, Google, Apple and so on.   The fact that none has is a pretty clear indication that the technology is still waiting to mature.   It'll come, but not piecemeal.