ORLANDO, FL – As near field communication continues to gain momentum, merchants and marketers should realize that it enables more than just contactless payments – it can be used to inspire consumer loyalty, according to a panel at CTIA Wireless 2011.

A group of industry experts weighs in: Will NFC live up to the hype and help contactless mobile payments and marketing technologies such as smart posters reach the mass market?

Citi Tap and Pay, a contactless credit-card payments platform based on Near Field Communications technology, has rolled out in India.

Mobile loyalty and rewards service provider Tetherball has teamed with Vivotech to offer its recently introduced RFID-based mobile loyalty programs to existing users of Vivotech’s contactless reader technology.

While the virtues of mobile coupons are obvious, key challenges are growing the installed base of users and convincing retailers, mobile experts told CTIA last week.

Dairy Queen is running a mobile rewards loyalty program using radio-frequency identification—RFID tags—to send coupons and offers to consumers’ handsets.

NCR Corp. along with Vivotech has introduced contactless payment terminals for the point of sale, bringing closer the dream — or nightmare — of turning the mobile phone into a wallet.