Barclaycard and Orange team on contactless m-payments

NFC-based contactless mobile payments allow customers to purchase items of £10 and under at the point of sale by waving their handsets over specially equipped terminals.

Barclaycard and Orange will work together on rolling out the technology, which they call "the biggest revolution in payments since plastic cards were introduced over 40 years ago".

They say they will also look to expand the partnership to include other contactless services within ticketing, transport and rewards. MasterCard will provide the payment capabilities for the transactions.

The first fruits of the relationship - an Orange phone that has a Barclays MasterCard built in to it - will arrive in the shops in the not-too-distant future, building on Barclays' rapid transition to contactless technology in the card space.

Tom Alexander, CEO, Orange UK, says: "Today you pay for things by cash or on your credit card. Tomorrow, you'll use your mobile to buy the things you want, whether that's on the high street or the Internet."

Antony Jenkins, CEO, Barclaycard, adds: "There has been a lot of talk about mobile payments and now it's going to become a reality for our customers because of Barclaycard's commitment to contactless technology and the coming together of two dynamic and imaginative organisations."

As well as contactless payments, the partners say they will also team on mobile alerts, servicing capabilities and banking applications.

Barclaycard was the first to introduce contactless technology on credit cards in the UK in September 2007 with the launch of Barclaycard OnePulse, the three in one Oyster, credit and contactless card.

This month Barclays began issuing contactless debit cards as standard and says it expects more than three million customers to be using the technology by the end of the year.

But the firm has been looking beyond cards for some time, with CEO Jenkins predicting in September that mobile phones could make them obsolete.