Mobiles Phones as RFID Readers

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on April 12, 2004

One of the most exciting convergences of technologies is mobile phones and RFID readers/tags.

Nokia recently announced its Mobile RFID Kit, which is an attachment to a Nokia 5140 mobile phone which allows the phone to be used as an RFID reader.

According to Nokia's Peter Wakim who spoke at the recent RFIDJournalLive Conference, the Kit is based on the concept of Near Field Communications, in which the tags/readers work at 13.56 MHz, with a range of only a few centimeters (less than an inch). A typical use might be for reading a meter.

The technology is based on the GSM phone, which means it would be limited within the US to the AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and Cingular mobile phone carriers.

The future direction is to eventually make the cell phone itself behave as an RFID tag.

Hat tip to Atul Salgaonkar of RFID Solutions.