Transport for London’s trial of a mobile phone-based Oyster card is the latest in the growing trend for contactless payments and bundled services.

Five hundred Underground users will be paying for their journeys using their mobiles, as part of a pilot of network operator O2’s wallet technology which began last week.

The Near Field Communications (NFC) technology used by Oyster cards is already widely employed on mobile phones in the Far East.

But the London pilot will look at the specifics of the UK market, according to Transport for London head of strategy Giles Bailey.

“While projects in Tokyo and Seoul have exciting ways of operating, we need to test the UK experience and context and understand how people travel here,” he said.

“We need to see how customers react to the trial, what issues arise, how they can be dealt with and what modifications might be necessary ­ all that will help us go forward.”

The upgraded phones can also be used to locate nearby retailers that accept contactless payments ­ including Books Etc and Yo! Sushi ­ and to access information from tagged “smart posters” on the Tube network.

Contactless payment schemes are on the rise. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) started a mobile phone trial internally last week, with a view to a wider pilot next year.

Staff at the bank’s headquarters will be able to pay for items costing less than £10 using MasterCard’s Maestro tap and go technology, by touching their phone to a
terminal.

“We think that mobile phones will be the next step in the payments evolution,” said RBS consumer banking chief executive Paul Geddes.

The trial will run until the end of the year. Barclaycard’s OnePulse contactless card payment scheme began in London’s Canary Wharf district in September
and includes Coffee Republic, Krispy Kreme, Books Etc and Threshers.