(Telecompaper) Vodafone Group is launching the 'SmartPass' mobile payment service in Spain, supported by Wirecard Group. The official launch is planned for end-November. The service will be extended in phases to Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and other countries. Vodafone Group's M-Commerce Director, Christian Wirtz, said that the company was convinced that contactless payments using smartphones will gain pace from 2014. Wirecard is supporting Vodafone as a technical service provider when implementing the mobile payment application for various mobile phone types. Wirecard is also responsible for the creation, implementation and operations of all technical processes. Vodafone SmartPass customers with an NFC-enabled mobile phone can use their Vodafone NFC-SIM card to make contactless payments at the point of sale (POS) from their Vodafone SmartPass credit balance. Wirecard will provide NFC tags for mobile phone models which are not NFC-enabled.