Telecom NZ, Auckland Transport and Thales have announced plans to start trialling a mobile wallet system across Auckland, New Zealand’s public transportation network starting this May.

Developed in partnership with Gemalto, Westpac and Paymark, the trial will involve some 30 staff from the six organizations using mobile phones to make NFC payments on Aukland’s buses, trains and ferries, as well as at certain retailers.

The system uses Thales’ NFC application in conjunction with Auckland Transport’s HOP smart card ticketing system and Telecom XT’s mobile network. To pay for rides, users simply tap their NFC phone against an existing HOP readers and the payment is made via a prepaid Telecom XT account.

Leveraging Paymark’s infrastructure, trial participants can use a Westpac credit card to add credit to their Telecom XT accounts without having to go online or pay in a store.

According to Thales, the NFC application will be deployed “globally across all networks and banks” following the trial.

For the trial, Gemalto will provide the network infrastructure required for NFC including its Trusted Service Management platform.

Earlier this month Telecom NZ, Vodafone, 2Degrees and Paymark announced a joint venture to launch a TSM that will provide a common solution for the New Zealand market. The technology and solutions tested in this trial will ultimately be available to all New Zealanders, across all mobile operators, via the TSM.