Dutch operator KPN unveiled more details on its NFC joint venture in the Netherlands during the 2011 GSMA Mobile Money Summit, claiming that the initiative is vital to both operators and banks if they are to remain a major player in the future value chain. Last September KPN and rival operators T-Mobile and Vodafone announced plans to create a unified m-payments system, along with finance players ABN Amro, ING and Rabobank. With a goal to cover the entire country, KPN’s Peter Van Leeuwen, strategy and business development manager, said that vendor selection for the project is underway, with commercial launch in Q2 or Q3 next year, “probably in a small city, and then weeks after, nationwide.”