Nokia Lumia 610 NFC may come to other carriers

In early April Nokia announced the the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC, an NFC equipped Nokia Lumia 610, will be coming to Orange’s network.

At the time it appeared that the phone will be exclusive to the carrier, but now NFCExpert.ru reports that this may not be the case.

“We wanted to promote the NFC ecosystem, and we believe the Lumia 610 would be a success because it’s an affordable device addressing young people,” said Andrea Bacioccola, lead program manager for NFC in Nokia’s Windows Phone program. “It will be available for operators all around the world.”

Nokia said it hopes to ship the NFC version of the phone to operators globally

He also said Nokia is encouraging Windows Phone developers to start working on NFC applications, including apps that could support secure applications stored on NFC SIM cards.

“It will be published,” Bacioccola said of the Windows Phone APIs involving NFC. “They (developers) will get APIs and all the documentation and support from Nokia. With the Nokia Lumia 610, you will be able to create secure NFC applications.”

In contrast, Google has not published its Google Wallet application-programming interface, or API, for its NFC-enabled Android phones. The wallet is anchored by an embedded secure element.

Microsoft had very little involvement in the development of the NFC support in the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC, but is expected to fully support it natively in Windows Phone 8.

Read more at NFCExpert.ru here.