KT Corporation, Korea’s largest teleco, is predicting that 20 million NFC-enabled phones will be in the hands of South Koreans by the end of 2012 – accounting for nearly 40% of the country’s total population, according to NFC World.

Some 5 million South Koreans own NFC-enabled phones, which have become a popular form of payment for subway, bus and taxi fares, reports KT. The teleco says the expansion of NFC transit payments will continue to spur NFC handset growth, as will the advent of mobile advertising and the addition of credit card payments to KT’s NFC mobile platform.

This expansion is already well underway, according to KT. So far 12,000 bus shelters in the Gyeonggi Province have been equipped with NFC tags providing transit information. Additionally, NFC-enabled advertisements and information services are beginning to appear in subway cars nationwide.

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