Nearly 90 per cent of Brits would be happy to use a payment system on their mobile phone, says O2.
The telecommunications giant joined forces with phone manufacturer Nokia, Transport for London (TfL) and a number of high-street shops to trial a new payment system between October last year and May this year.
The trial saw 500 Londoners given Nokia 6131 handsets that featured applications for TfL's Oyster Card and Barclay's payWave systems. Using near field communications (NFC) technology, the handset owners were able to travel on tubes, buses and trains by waving the phone near an Oyster Card reader or make purchases under 10 in a number of high street stores including Threshers off-licences and sandwich shop Eat by tapping the device on a specially designed console.
According to O2, 89 per cent of participants in the trial were happy with the Oyster Card application and 66 per cent wanted to continue using the payWave system. A further 87 per cent also claimed their choice of handset would be influenced by its ability to be used as an Oyster card.
Nokia meanwhile claims the system doesn't sup the phone's battery and the apps will continue to work even if the phone is switched off.
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