Orange planning big increase in NFC phones

Orange planning big increase in NFC phones
Phones. Tapping. Electricity. The future

Orange has told TechRadar that it will be adding a large number of NFC-capable phones to its range in the next 12 months.

The network currently only has the NFC-enabled Samsung Tocco Lite in its line-up at the moment, but recently announced the Samsung Galaxy S2 with NFC would be launching in France, and signs are the modified version are coming to the UK too.

Jason Rees, Director of Mobile Payments & Ticketing at Everything Everywhere, told us that a boost in the number of phones, across all budgets, is key to the success of NFC as a recognised technology:

"We'll be seeing a number of new NFC-capable handsets by the end of the year, giving the contactless capability across the range."

High, low, beeping in the snow

"It will be offered in high end phones, as well as the mid and lower tier devices, and will be supported by all the operating systems you'd expect.

"Next year will be very healthy in terms of NFC-capable phones; if you imagine this year we were looking at launching maybe two or three, by Q3 2012 we aim to have tens of devices across the range."

With Google Wallet launching in the US and an ever-increasing number of handsets supporting NFC, with the London 2012 Olympics approaching it seems certain that your phone is going to quickly become the most important thing to take with you when you leave the house.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.