Two women with their new NFC-compatible mobiles (above) and a queue outside a ticket counter at Inox, Calcutta

Imagine going to a multiplex and deciding what movie to go for by simply downloading the video trailer instantaneously on your mobile phone and purchasing the ticket from an electronic video poster. You will also be able to buy popcorns, soft drinks and even pay your parking tickets by just punching in certain numbers on your mobile phone at specially marked kiosks. Sounds too good to be true or seems like a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie?

But hold on ? this is no figment of the imagination. The technology for all this is now a reality at the French tourist town of Caen. In an experiment involving companies like Orange and Philips and the town mayor’s office, Caen’s citizens have been using this technology since December 2005 at a number of locations, including an underground car park, the town hall and a bus stop that transmits information on bus schedules. The town also has a cinema poster that enables the users to download video trailers, a supermarket where people can pay for their groceries via a mobile phone, and a tourist information sign outside the historical Abbaye des Hommes.

To avail of this sophisticated service, all one needs is a near field communication (NFC) compatible mobile phone. NFC is a technology that is used for exchanging data from the consumers’ electronic devices (personal computers, mobile phones). The system is based on the phenomenon of inductive coupling, where loosely coupled inductive circuits share power and data over small distances. It operates within a frequency range of 13.56MHz.

When NFC-compliant devices are brought close together they detect the presence of the other device and begin to determine how they can interact to transfer the data. The ability to read and write to tags makes it potentially adaptive as a platform wider than just advertising or ticketing.

Visa USA, Philips, Nokia, Cingular, Atlanta Spirit, Chase, and ViVOtech have been working on a major NFC trial that has been underway at the Philips Arena stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, allowing sports fans to buy goods at the concession stands easily. Consumers can also access and download contents like ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and clippings of their favourite players and artists by holding the NFC-enabled phone in front of a poster embedded with an NFC tag.

In Malaysia, Visa International and Nokia have jointly released the world’s first credit card payment pilot system, which allows consumers to shop and pay via their mobile phones. It works on the Visa Wave smart card technology, which uses radio frequencies to eliminate the need to swipe a credit card into a reader. The wave cards are similar to the “touch and go” cards used in transport systems, like the smart cards used to travel in metro trains in Calcutta. Moreover, the Nokia 3230 prototype phone used in the Visa pilot project is embedded with a chip that uses the latest cryptography, security and smart card technologies, making it highly secure and difficult to counterfeit. There are other smartcards in commercial use today such as Philips’ MIFARE and Sony’s Felica (used by Delhi Metro Railway). NFC platforms are compatible with both.

With the possibility of this system being widely marketed in India in the near future, Vijay Basrur, assistant vice president, IT, at INOX, is very excited. He, however, adds, “I think it will take some time for Indians to adapt to this new technology. The concept of making payments via the mobile phone is just being introduced in India and the average Indian consumer is still waking up to the fact that he or she can pay for services via the mobile phone.” INOX already has 11 operational multiplexes in the country and at the moment people can book tickets for a movie via an SMS, he says.

“I think it is indeed a good technology and is very applicable in the multiplex scenario, but is limited in its functionality when the consumer cannot decide on which movie to watch,” says Basrur. In most cases, at least in India, consumers come to a multiplex having already decided on the movie and the show timings. Therefore, the use of this technology may be limited in terms of buying movie tickets. “However, buying popcorns or colas or even paying for parking tickets will be convenient things to have from a consumer’s perspective,” he says.

But will this new technology burn a hole in the consumer’s pocket? Industry experts feel that the NFC-compatibility factor will make mobile phones expensive by about Rs 500. But how much of the establishment cost the retailers or the service provider will pass on to the consumer is anybody’s guess. “I am not sure whether a consumer will have to pay a premium for services like interactive posters or buying popcorn through their mobile phones. Moreover, it will be an uphill task to pass on the investments in this technology to consumers,” says Basrur.

A study by ABI Research projects that 50 per cent of cell phones will be NFC compatible by 2009 with the shipment of 500-plus million NFC handsets. So get set to enjoy this retail experience in the near future.