Telefonica Germany will launch a P2P money transfer service from mid-February along with a trial of NFC-based mobile payments.

Subscribers will authorise the transfer of funds to other handsets by using only their mobile number and PIN for authorisation, rather than giving their full bank account details. This has become a familiar model for such services.

Both sender and recipients of funds must download an app to access the service. The operator will release apps for both Android and iOS handsets.

Telefonica will also launch a mobile wallet trial so that users can make payments both in Germany and internationally using an NFC handset at those locations which are enabled with MasterCard’s PayPass point-of-sale technology.

As with the P2P service, accessing the operator’s wallet requires the use of a PIN to authorise payments.

Telefonica Germany subscribers with the Samsung Galaxy S III or Ace 2 handsets can join next month’s trial by ordering a free NFC-enabled SIM card. Once the card is loaded, the user will automatically receive a download link via SMS and can install the mobile wallet.

To link a card to the digital wallet, the subscriber then registers using the operator’s existing mpass service. A new payments card issued by the operator is then automatically added to the digital wallet and the subscriber can start shopping.

Launched several years ago, mpass is an online payments service offered jointly by Telefonica and two of its rivals, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.  Users pay into mpass accounts from their bank accounts.

The operator does not spell it out but its new payments card is probably pre-paid rather than a credit or debit card.

“Soon, children will only know from history books what a wallet and hard cash are,” according to René Schuster (pictured), Telefonica Germany’s CEO, in a bullish comment.

Telefonica says it will make further additions to the wallet during 2013 including additional payment cards, coupons and loyalty programmes. The first bank will soon integrate a credit card into the wallet, it said.

The operator launched a limited NFC-based service last autumn which enabled subscribers to make payments but using an NFC sticker attached to a conventional handset rather than a NFC-based smartphone.