NFC (Near field communication) has been a feature that has been on many smartphones for a long time now however it’s use has not really taken off.

VISA have now decided to put a big push on the technology and have engaged OPTUS and Vodafone to undertake trials of the technology over a period of twelve months to see how it performs until real world situations.

The deal with Optus is in addition to the deal that VISA has done with Vodafone and is purely an internal trial of the technology. It is not known whether the trial will be rolled out to consumers and businesses at this stage.

The way that this technology will work is that if a customer has a NFC compatible smart phone then all they will need to do to pay for goods is to swipe their smartphone across the POS system to register the sale.

Sales will then be registered and appear on the users phone bill.

Telstra will welcome the technology as it may increase the number of consumers joining their network. This technology as well as offering a Telstra promo code will help the company increase market share.