Leading Canadian mobile operator Rogers Wireless is looking to launch an NFC-based mobile payments service, according to NFC Times. The operator is currently lining up potential partners. Rogers aims to work with “at least one bank and probably Visa but not other Canadian operators”, says the report. Possible banking partners include the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The “rough plan” is for a launch by the end of Q1 2012.

If Rogers decides to go it alone without other operators, its approach would be out of line with the way many of its peer group internationally are behaving. There is a growing realisation that joint deployments by every operator in a country, or at least the market leaders, is necessary to minimise fragmentation.