China Mobile and Orange ink deal for SIM-based NFC services.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.       

China Mobile and Orange ink deal for SIM-based NFC services.

Intent on making the prevalence of near-field communications (NFC) a reality, Orange and China Mobile have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The two operators are aiming to accelerate the commercialisation of mobile contactless services and said they will adopt internationally recognised standards for embedding the secure technical protocols directly into the SIM-card.

The firms said they aim to participate in the development of a market in which users can access NFC services regardless of their device or operator.

“Orange and China Mobile share a common belief that, for NFC services to take-off on a global scale, the industry needs to work  together in order to adopt a common set of standards that operate within  a fully-interoperable business platform,” the firms said in a joint statement.

The two companies have agreed to work together to ensure: the large-scale adoption of SIM-based NFC services and the availability of compatible devices; the interoperability of such services in a way that will facilitate the emergence of a wide range of applications; and the development of standardised solutions that will provide consistency across eco-systems.

Nokia and Oracle seals mapping deal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Nokia and Oracle seals mapping deal.

Struggling Finnish vendor Nokia has struck a deal that will give Oracle’s customers access to its growing vault of map data and location services.

The Wall Street Journal claims the partnership could be announced later today in San Francisco at the OracleWorld conference.

The move will come as a boost to Nokia, as it looks for ways to strengthen the business. The quality of its map services are held in high regard throughout the industry and it has recently signed mapping deals with Groupon and Amazon. In 2008 Nokia acquired the world’s largest digital mapping firm Navteq.  In stark contrast with Nokia's troubled phone business, sales at Nokia's location business grew last quarter, although it still generates only 4 percent of group revenue.

The high-profile deal also comes as major rival Apple struggles with the launch of its own mapping services on the new iOS 6 platform.

Meanwhile Oracle is the world's third-biggest software firm but also sells hardware to corporate clients and in 2009 bought Sun Microsystems, the manufacturer of server computers and developer of Java and Solaris software. Oracle will tout the deal as an easy way for customers to use Nokia's maps to integrate consistent and broad mapping capabilities into Oracle applications.