Some 1, 000 DBS customers with StarHub mobile plans will be the first in Singapore to use the NFC Mobile Payment Solution trial service for everyday mobile payments.

Trial users 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 subsequently on public transportation such as buses and trains.

The trial will start in December 2010 and will last for eight months. The project, which was collaboratively organised by DBS Bank, EZ-Link, Gemalto, MasterCard and StarHub, will involve adding an Upteq N-Flex wafer-thin chip to the SIM card of a mobile handset.

The Upteq N-Flex solution functions on SIM cards across multiple mobile handsets hence helping to accelerate the ubiquity of handsets supporting NFC. The solution is also the first-of-its-kind conforming to the Single Wire Protocol (SWP) as endorsed by the GSM Association (GSMA).