Mel at T-Mobile knew what NFC was , which was a good start . She didn ’ t know exactly which phones had the technology , but said “ most of the new phones will have it ”.

If she was just referring to high-end devices , she was correct – the Samsung Galaxy S4 , Galaxy S III , BlackBerry Z10 and Q5 , HTC One and a range of Sony Xperias are all NFC-enabled .

Mel chose to recommend the Sony Xperia SP , for the simple reason that she had the device herself and really liked it . It cost £ 37 on contract , for unlimited calls and texts and 5GB of 4G data , she said . This was very generous for a 4GEE tariff .

As she was so familiar with EE ’ s plans , I hoped she would be able to

tell me about the operator ’ s new NFC mobile payments app ‘ Cash on Tap ’, which it launched with payment provider MasterCard a few days before I called .

No such luck – Mel was only able to tell me about Orange ’ s ‘ Quick Tap ’ app , which was launched with Barclaycard in 2011 .

She said this was not available on T-Mobile but would be next year . In general , we would “ start to see more and more NFC services launch in the next few years ”. Several CSAs fed me similar lines – that the UK has not adopted NFC wholeheartedly yet .

“ We are not actively using NFC at the moment ,” Mel said . I was dropping several hints about Cash on Tap but

she failed to pick up on any of them , saying she didn ’ t know what I was talking about . She gave up immediately when I said I wanted to do some more research before buying anything .

For what it ’ s worth , Cash on Tap is an app which will be available on all NFC phones , but was only pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S4 , Galaxy S III LTE and Sony Xperia SP at launch .

EE said it had secured deals with 230,000 UK outlets including McDonald ’ s , Boots and Greggs .

It ’ s a real shame Mel wasn ’ t aware of any of this , as apart from this her performance was solid . She did well to know what NFC was , for starters , although there was room for improvement in her manner .

Manner Understanding Knowledge Helpfulness Clarity Overall

••••• ••••• ••••• ••••• •••••

•••••

Time of call 11:00 Duration of call 7 minutes Length of queue 0 minutes Assistant introduced by name Yes

Manner Understanding Knowledge Helpfulness Clarity Overall

••••• ••••• ••••• ••••• •••••

•••••

Time of call 10:08 Duration of call 14 minutes Length of queue 0 minutes Assistant introduced by name Yes

Like Katrina at Vodafone , Jack at O2 gave the impression he did not know what NFC was . A brief silence followed my request , before he said “ OK ” and started asking me generic questions about my requirements .

He asked whether I used my phone a lot , and whether I currently used NFC . Perhaps the biggest giveaway was when he asked me if I knew any phones that had NFC . I pretended to know even less than him , and he returned to questioning me about my usage .

Jack then said he was “ double checking ” if a handset he had in mind was NFC-enabled . A few seconds later he began telling me about the Sony Xperia Z , which has “ quite a large screen and a 13-megapixel camera ”. Crucially , it

is NFC-enabled . Jack then got into his stride , listing the things “ that are good about NFC ” – most likely he was reading from his computer screen , but I was relieved nonetheless .

The technology is “ like a really fast version of Bluetooth ”, he said , that would allow me to connect to other phones and share files .

According to Jack , the best thing about NFC is ‘ SmartTags ’, fob-like products that can prompt the phone to load certain pages or change settings . He wasn ’ t the best at explaining Smart- Tags , saying I could “ touch my keyring to set a Walkman ”. The Sony website does a much better job , explaining I could have different SmartTags for the rooms in my house . Touching the

‘ bedroom SmartTag ’, for example , would set my Xperia Z on silent and turn on my alarm . I asked about contactless mobile payments . Jack said he knew of several banking applications , including ‘ Pingit ’ from Barclays . This wasn ’ t a great example as it doesn ’ t use NFC and only has money-transfer capabilities .

I prompted him by asking about ‘ mobile wallets ’, hoping this would ring some bells . He searched online before saying “ As in O2 wallet ?”. At last . I asked how I could load the phone with money , whether I needed to download the app and for a rundown of how it worked . “ I will just be two seconds ,” Jack said , before reeling off some marketing literature on the app – at which point I gave up and ended the call .

Darwin at Virgin was the only CSA who knew both what NFC was and which handsets had the technology .

After hearing my requirements , he said : “ NFC , near field communications . No worries , I can help you ”. You have to hand it to Virgin for training their staff to know more about phones than megapixels and contract costs .

He went through some formalities first , asking me if I wanted the phone on prepay or contract and how many minutes I wanted . He then suggested the Samsung Galaxy S III and “ one of the Sony handsets ”.

He summarised the specifications of the Galaxy S III ( eight megapixels , 4.8- inch screen ) well , so I asked him about what I would have to do once I got the

handset in order to use NFC to make mobile contactless payments . Would I have to download an app , for example ?

Darwin said : “ The Virgin Mobile sales team has not been told of any app used for mobile payments .” And so he identified limitations in their training .

However , he clearly had a lot of general knowledge about NFC , saying it was being used around the world to connect gadgets to other gadgets . “ In future every phone will have it ,” he said .

Having exhausted Darwin ’ s NFC knowledge , I asked which handset he would recommend I buy .

He first tried to sell me the Samsung Galaxy S III free up front on a £ 25 contract . He then had to go back on this and raise it to £ 30 , as I told him

I wasn ’ t an existing Virgin customer . When I said I wanted to do some more research before committing , in an attempt to end the call , he offered me another NFC-enabled device , the Sony Xperia L . This is more affordable at £ 26 on contract for new customers .

I managed to end the call despite several attempts by Darwin to make a sale , though he remained on the right side of “ pushy ” and was at least enthusiastic . He was correct in saying Virgin do not have any apps specific to them which enable customers to use NFC-enabled devices to make contactless payments .

A decent performance from Virgin , which is yet to create an NFC contactless payment app for the UK .

Manner Understanding Knowledge Helpfulness Clarity Overall

••••• ••••• ••••• ••••• ••••• •••••

Time of call 10:34 Duration of call 10 minutes Length of queue 0 minutes Assistant introduced by name Yes

Average score from the past eight weeks

16

16

T-Mobile

13

Virgin

Vodafone