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Users of ‘Everything Everywhere’, the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile will soon be able to make payments for various purchases directly with their mobile phones in the U.K.

The system is expected to launch by summer this year, and will offer a convenient alternative during the Olympic Games to be held in London next year.

Contactless Payment technology, the system launched for travel payments by mobile provider O2 in 2009, will contribute to the basis for the mobile payment platform. Orange will launch new SIM cards with Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, which is also used in new credit and debit cards nowadays.

Users will be able to “wave” their mobile phones at shop tills from a distance of about 10 centimetres to make their payments.

The system will be very convenient as mobile phone will now also function as a wallet and users will not have to bother to carry cash or credit cards.

Orange is working with Barclaycard to launch this new service. Over 40,000 businesses have already expressed their willingness to subscribe to this new payment option. Initially the service will only allow for the payment of small sums up to ₤15.

A similar facility for payment through mobile phones has been available in Japan and Korea for several years now.

According to a report from the Payments Council in the U.K., “by 2050, using cash could well be a minority activity.”