Newly announced services and handsets from Japan’s NTT DoCoMo make mobile payments possible in both prepaid and postpaid modes. According to Gartner, operators should concentrate on the merchant infrastructure to exploit the possibilities.
On 16 June 2004, Japan’s mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, announced i-mode FeliCa, a service for new handsets to act as electronic wallets. The new handsets will be available in July 2004 with Sony’s contactless smartcard chips embedded in them.
