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back to article Nokia C7 'Astound' in US debut - all ready for touchless payment

The Nokia C7 has got its American launch, exclusive to T-Mobile and branded the "Astound", but it also got functioning NFC software – unlike its European incarnation. The C7 was launched in Europe last October, with Near Field Communications hardware but without the software needed to make use of it. The Astound is the US …

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  1. Andy Nugent

    NFC in US C7-00 or in PR 2.0

    Is the NFC functionality added exclusively in the Astound, or is it a feature added in SW update PR 2.0, which the European C7-00 will get eventually and the Astound is launched with?

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hands up

    who doesn't want operators involved in whatever NFC solution comes out ahead.

    You can just feel they will: use it to lock us into their contracts even further, add ridiculous charges and make a mess of it as usual.

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    1. DrXym
      Reply Icon

      Oh I expect they'll sink their claws in

      Not just operators but people like Google & Apple too. I wonder what that means for fees. Even if there were just one payment processor, e.g. Apple, the chances are the user topped up their Apple account with a credit card so any transaction fee Apple charges has to compensate for the transaction fee they incurred from VISA / Mastercard when the account was topped up.

      I can't see it being any cheaper than standard credit card transactions, and I can't see any reason that either an end user or a store would appreciate a middle man like Google or Apple trying to slap their own fees onto the transaction.

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      1. Ian Michael Gumby
        Reply Icon
        Boffin

        Doesn't matter to the consumer...

        The fees associated to the transaction are paid for by the vendor, and of course they either eat the cost or embed it in the price of the purchase.

        (If it costs $2.50 to ride the EL in Chicago, you pay $2.50 and CTA eats the cost of providing the service.)

        With US banks getting capped on how much they can charge the vendor for each debit card transaction, you can bet that this too will be capped as well. ($0.22 a transaction for debit purchases? Going from memory.)

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