Sony today announced that mobile solutions incorporating its FeliCa technology will be used in Octopus, a popular Hong Kong contactless smart card payment service used for public transport and retail payment. Octopus Cards Limited (OCL) announced the public pilot launch of Hong Kong’s first Octopus mobile payment service enabled by its newest FeliCa-compatible NFC SIM card product – the Octopus Mobile SIM – today. FeliCa contactless IC card technology has been built into mobile phones in Japan since 2004. A wide variety of card services have been developed, including public transport tickets, electronic money and various types of ID services.
NFC-compatible mobile phones are continuing to grow in popularity around the world as the specs for this technology advances. Despite this, large-scale card services incorporating NFC technology are still relatively rare outside countries such as Japan and South Korea. Sony plans to use this latest development as another opportunity to integrate NFC mobile phones with FeliCa technology, to further expand useful services in other countries.

