Paris -- Two years after the launch of an industry consortium to push near-field communication technology into handsets, mobile phones equipped with the contactless capability remain few and far between. The scant examples include prototypes used in European trials and proprietary handsets controlled by NTT Do- como in Japan.

The problem isn't that contactless payment via mobile handsets is a concept alien to consumers or a tough sell in the mobile-phone industry; in fact, carriers and consumers get it. Many in the audience for an executive forum at last week's Cartes 2006 conference here expressed confidence the industry would see widespread adoption of near-field communication within five years.

Outside Japan, however, phone developers and their chip suppliers have hesitated to implement the technology, for a number of reasons. Some involve the business model: Disagreements persist over who "owns" the subscribers and who will host the secure elements of contactless transactions. On the tech side, the lack of a standardized interface between the near-field communication chip and the subscriber identity module (SIM) card continues to grate.

As long as those questions re- main unanswered, most chip suppliers--with the exception of near-field communication technology inventor NXP--remain lukewarm about the contactless technology's volume-market prospects.

Michael Kuemmerle, a member of the management board and group executive for cards and services at smart-card vendor Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, is bullish. "We are quite optimistic that NFC-enabled handsets will allow contactless initiatives in North America" for banking, ticketing and entertainment applications, Kuemmerle said last week.

But Stuart Carlaw, principal analyst at ABI Research, cited the formidable roadblock of "competing business ideologies" between the mobile-operator and banking industries. Carriers hope to reap revenue from subscribers' contactless transactions via mobile phone. But the banking and credit industry regards commercial transactions by cardholders as a core business they would rather not surrender to phone companies. "Neither side wants to see its customer base erode," Carlaw said.

While the business-model conflicts loom large for providers, at the chip level the lingering uncertainties over the SIM-NFC interface bedevil suppliers.

Ingo Susemihl, senior marketing director at Infineon's chip card and security ICs business unit, acknowledged that the implementation of near-field communication technology and high-density memory storage cards in handsets is a hot topic in the mobile industry. "We understand that NFC-enabled mobile devices are sexy for end users," Susemihl said. "But before going for big volume with NFC, we need to see a standardized interface emerge."

Chip suppliers are waiting for results from a special meeting, scheduled for Nov. 20 in Sophia Antipolis, France, at which the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) smart-card committee will vote on a high-speed interface between SIM cards and high-density storage devices. The goal is to make it easier for users to download photos, music and other content into mobile-phone memory. The smart-card industry "has been deadlocked on this issue for three years," said Infineon's Susemihl.

Several mobile operators, working in concert with Gemalto, the largest smart-card vendor, are pushing a proposal to use Universal Serial Bus technology for the high-speed SIM. In contrast, Nokia, together with several other handset vendors, is promoting a multiprotocol interface called T-11. Nokia claims T-11 consumes less power and costs less than USB, while allowing PC connectivity by transporting data via such protocols as USB and Ethernet.