Payment giant MasterCard is following its strategy of partnering with global wireless carriers to bring NFC payments to market. The company announced two such partnerships in Poland with two of that country's mobile network operators, Orange and T-Mobile.

"2012 has been a significant year for MasterCard as we have put our focus on being the partner of choice for telecommunications service providers around the world," said Jorn Lambert, head of emerging payments at MasterCard Europe.

"The combination of MasterCard's leading innovation and technologies ... with the technological advancements in the handsets and service provider networks is fuelling the enthusiasm for strong and meaningful partnerships," Lambert said. "Together we are offering greater value to consumers worldwide."

T-Mobile and MasterCard announced that they will begin offering NFC-based mobile payments beginning later this month in Poland. The service, called MyWallet, includes four partner banks and is one of the first advanced solutions to be commercially implemented in Europe, the companies said. It will allow integration of full functionality of both debit and credit cards, in addition to other services.

Working with Orange Polska and financial institution mBank, MasterCard will introduce Orange Cash in Poland next month. The service will give consumers the ability to pay by tapping enabled mobile smartphones at MasterCard PayPass locations.

In the past year, MasterCard has announced similar partnerships with Japanese carrier NTT Docomo, U.K.-based Everything Everywhere and Deutsche Telekom.

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