O2 has told reporters it is confident consumers will see 'substantial progress' in bringing a mobile phone able to make contactless payments in the very near future.

Ronan Dunne, O2's UK Chief Executive, said O2's move into the financial space with O2 Money was the "first step" on the journey towards a contactless future.  "As you know O2 led trials [of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in mobile phones] last year, and we engaged with a number of commercial organisations in that area," said Dunne.

"Customers loved it, and the challenges now are with electronic point of sale capability, and deployment across mass retail.  "We'll be talking to large retailers, grocers for instance, also people in the transport industry [about bringing the technology to market]." 

O2 used around 500 people in the trial, which saw them using their mobile phone to make smaller payments, similar to Visa's Paywave system, and swapping an Oyster card for a phone in London too.

Not a foregone conclusion

However, Dunne pointed out while NFC might be coming to fruition, the next stage of deployment is far from a foregone conclusion:  "It's one of those situations where the technology is ready to go, but we need more deployment to get critical mass. We're confident you'll see substantial progress in that space, under the O2 brand, in the not too distant future.

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