Orange aims to launch commercial NFC services in Spain next year, a move that would mark the company’s fourth European deployment of the technology.

In an exclusive interview with Mobile World Live, Thierry Millet, VP of mobile payments at Orange, says the company has carried out “two very successful experiments” in Spain this year (one with Banco Santander and the other with Malaga’s transport authority, EMT) and now plans to ramp up this activity. “We are working towards deployment next year,” he reveals.

Orange has been a strong proponent of NFC technology and is the only operator to have launched commercial mobile NFC services in three countries: in France (2010), the UK (2011) and Poland (last month).

Elsewhere in the interview, Millet reiterates the company’s plan to sell close to 3 million NFC handsets in 2012. The operator has forecast that this figure will hit 10 million by 2013.

View the full interview here.