DBS, a Singapore -based bank that offers a wide range of services in corporate, SME, consumer and wholesale banking activities across Asia and the Middle East, is going to enable around 1,000 of its customers who have subscribed to the StarHub mobile plans, to enjoy the NFC Mobile Payment Solution trial service for everyday mobile payments, for the first time in the nation.

The eight-month-long trial by the financial institution will begin in December this year, and has been jointly organized by DBS Bank, EZ-Link, Gemalto (News - Alert), MasterCard and StarHub. The service will add an N-Flex solution, which will transform the regular handsets into NFC-enabled mobile phones without any change to the device. Implementable on SIM cards across multiple mobile handsets, the N-Flex solution helps in standardization of the handsets supporting NFC. The solution supports the Single Wire Protocol (SWP), which has been endorsed by the GSM Association (GSMA (News - Alert)).

StarHub is a provider of information, communications and entertainment services to both consumer and corporate markets of Singapore. The company operates a fast two-way HSPA+ mobile network in the country that delivers up to 21Mbps data speed to the customers of its GSM network; and also runs a HFC network for delivering cable TV services such as high-def TV and on-demand services and high-speed residential broadband services to the consumers as well.

During the NFC trial, customers of StarHub plans equipped with NFC-enabled mobile handsets will be able to make payments with their mobile handsets at all merchant outlets that accept the MasterCard PayPass or the ez-link card, and public transportation such as buses and trains as well.

A number of people will be invited to participate in the trial through electronic mailer from either StarHub or DBS Bank that contains instructions on how to register their participation online. Afterwards, the participants will have to visit the StarHub Customer Service Centre at One Raffles Place or a number of StarHub road shows where the Upteq N-Flex device will be inserted and mapped onto the SIM cards of their mobile handsets, which will finally enable them to start making payments with their phones.       

“With the rapidly expanding use of mobile devices, our customers are increasingly expecting financial services and payments to be offered on their mobile devices, and we are happy our cardholders will be the first in Singapore that will benefit from the convenience of having the functionality of NFC-enabled chip embedded onto their mobile phones to make payments,” said Ooi Huey Tyng, senior vice president, Cards & Unsecured Loans at DBS Bank Ltd. “Through this, we hope to further promote the adoption of cashless payment in Singapore.”

In June 2010, StarHub selected and deployed SeaChange International’s (News - Alert) Intelligent Video Platform in support of its mobile TV service. The SeaChange Intelligent Video Platform was implemented on the ‘StarHub TV on Mobile’ service to provide a unified and open back office software solution for high-quality streaming over StarHub’s mobile network to any mobile device.