Japanese mobile operator, NTT DOCOMO, is partnering with South Korean telecom operator, KT Corporation, to develop a cross-border e-money service (view press release). The new service will allow DOCOMO customers with compatible smartphones purchased in Japan to use a prepaid e-money service dubbed Cashbee in South Korea.

Since February of last year, the companies have been working together to explore opportunities for seamless cross-border mobile services using smartphones. They plan to deploy a new system to enable this and other cross-border NFC services between their two countries by the end of the first half of fiscal 2013 ending in March 2014. They will then consider the deployment of other NFC-based cross-border services, such as mobile payments, promotional coupons and mass-transit ticketing.