By Cho Mu-hyun

SK Planet said Thursday that it will head “Global Working Team (GWT),” an entity organized by The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) with the aim of setting an international standard for near field communication (NFC).

The team was launched on Tuesday to coincide with the opening day of the Mobile Asia Expo 2012 held in Shanghai.

The GSMA says the objective of the team will be to provide reviews, input, guidance and a global perspective on key NFC projects.

NFC refers to a set of standards for smartphones to establish radio communication with each other in close proximity.

The new team continues the GSMA’s Pay Buy Mobile (PBM) project, and will act as a forum to discuss the support of roaming usage of NFC services, mainly payments and transport ticketing.

According to SK Planet, the company was chosen as a leader by the GSMA based on its accumulated know-how and experiences in the domestic market.

The GWT will meet face-to-face with other international firms from Europe, Japan, the United States, China and others once per quarter in global events. Member firms will also discuss plans constantly in conference calls and emails to establish an agreed NFC standard.

Kim Jong-ho, the manager of SK Planet’s global technology division, who has been working on similar internal projects since 2008, will head the delegations sent by the firm to global meetings.

Kim will be the chairman of future GWT meetings and is poised to approve work streams proposed by other member companies of GWT.

SK Planet also announced that they will showcase a new one-stop service for baseball games called “NFC & Joy” in collaboration with Japanese firm KDDI at a booth in the expo. The company plans to commercialize the service in Japan.