City of Caen, France, to Demonstrate Simplicity of Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology

The city
of Caen in Normandy, France will today be the setting for a trial of one of
the most promising new technologies in the mobile telecommunications market:
Near Field Communication (NFC). With this touch-based technology from Royal
Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), 200 Caen residents will use mobile
phones with an embedded Philips NFC chip as a means of secure payment in
selected retail stores, parking facilities and famous tourist sites around
town in a six-month trial. For the trial, Philips will work closely with
France Telecom R&D, network operator Orange, handset manufacturer Samsung and
renowned retailers Groupe LaSer and Vinci Park.
The Caen NFC trial is the world's first large scale trial of this
emerging technology and will enable direct feedback to be gathered from
mobile operators, retailers and consumers. The Caen trial of NFC will help
illustrate how consumers can securely and easily make purchases and obtain
information, simply with the swipe of their mobile phones.
"The great potential of NFC is being illustrated in Caen where consumers
can easily use this touch-based technology to simplify transactions, obtain
information and reduce the amount of time spent in queues. NFC will
fundamentally change the way consumers use technology and businesses
implement it," said Christophe Duverne, Vice President, Philips
Semiconductors and Chairman of the NFC Forum. "NFC will have a tremendous
impact on our day-to-day lives, and I'm pleased that Philips, France Telecom,
Samsung, Groupe LaSer and Vinci Park together have this first broad-scale
rollout of NFC possible."
The range of services and applications for NFC-enabled Samsung D500
mobile phones includes:
- Retail applications: Groupe Laser chains, which include Monoprix
supermarket and Galeries Lafayette will be equipped with NFC payment
terminals enabling users to pay at checkout using their NFC-enabled phone.
More stores will follow later in the trial, along with a cashless payment
scheme in partnership with Cofinoga, the consumer credit arm of Groupe Laser.
- Car parking access: When users wish to access a car park, they simply
pass their NFC-enabled phone in front of the entrance booth. The car park
ticketing application automatically issues a 'virtual' ticket on the mobile
phone and debits the cost from the users' season card or pre-paid account
when the phone is passed across the terminal at the car park exit.
- Tourist services: When an NFC-enabled phone is swiped across
information points at landmarks in Caen, a phone call will be made or SMS
message received containing interesting tourist information about the site.
- Active Posters: During the trial, more applications will be added,
including the purchase of mobile phone content such as ringtones and
wallpaper through posters around town that have NFC embedded.
The solution used in this trial incorporates secure, over the air (OTA)
download of applications on a GSM network and automatically recognizes the
appropriate application to launch when an NFC connection is made. In addition
to NFC, the Samsung phone also incorporates a Philips smart card chip,
enabling users to make payments and use banking applications supported by one
of the highest levels of security available on the market today.
About NFC
Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, NFC is a combination of
contactless identification and interconnection technologies that enables
wireless short-range communication between mobile devices, consumer
electronics, PCs and smart objects. NFC offers a simple, touch-based solution
that allows consumers to exchange information and to access content and
services in an intuitive way.
Combining the functions of a contactless reader, a contactless card and
peer-to-peer functionality on a single chip, NFC opens up a myriad of new
opportunities to our consumer lifestyles. It is an open interface platform
that allows fast and automatic set-up of wireless networks, which also works
as a virtual connector for existing cellular, Bluetooth and wireless 802.11
devices.
NFC is compatible with Sony's FeliCa(TM) card and the broadly established
contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, which is used in
Philips' MIFARE(R) technology.
To drive development and adoption of NFC, Philips, Sony and Nokia
established the NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association which promotes
implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure
interoperability between devices and services. The NFC Forum has currently
more than 50 members around the globe including MasterCard International,
Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co, Ltd, (Panasonic), Microsoft, Motorola,
NEC Corporation, Renesas Technology Corp., Samsung, Texas Instruments and
Visa International.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one
of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales
of EUR 30.3 billion in 2004. With activities in the three interlocking
domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 161,100 employees in more
than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic
imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers,
lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at
http://www.semiconductors.philips.com.

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