Telecom Italia (TI) is to launch its own-brand virtual Visa card for NFC-based smartphone users with a launch planned for 2014.

The card, which the operator also worked on with local bank Intesa Sanpaulo, will enable TI subscribers with selected smartphones to make transactions at the point-of-sale.

TI and Visa Europe also plan services that enable money transfers between a smartphone and other subscribers (details are not clear but this could mean a transfer from the phone to a user’s bank account), as well as e-commerce payments via the device.

The operator does not say more about the virtual card, although a statement by Davide Steffanini, general manager Italy at Visa Europe, that the country is Europe’s leader in pre-paid products seems to indicate the latter.

Visa has just announced that it will work with Orange on a similar-sounding pre-paid NFC payments service, also due for a 2014 launch.

Telecom Italia has 31 million mobile subscribers in its domestic market.

The Visa-backed card will be one inclusion in a Telecom Italia-branded mobile wallet, which the operator will host for a wide range of partners including other financial institutions, retailers, transport and public utilities.

The operator last year carried out an NFC trial among 1,000 users in Milan, which started during the GSMA NFC & Mobile Money Summit 2012 staged in the city.

Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano said in 2014 there will be over 14 million NFC-enabled smartphones circulating in Italy. He also forecast that in less than two years over 10 per cent of Italian users will make “extensive” user of multiple services available through NFC.