Does NFC use "Mobile Data"?

[pinkybrain]

We have a galaxy S2 (T-Mobile) and a few Galaxy S4 (AT&T) in the house. Have never used the NFC but was curious if it uses any "mobile data"? I don't have much data and it's hard to search on here for this because it NFC is too short of a word to search for. So, if my mobile data is disabled, will it still work? Also, is it faster than Bluetooth and what are the advantages?

Thanks!

 

[lunatic59]

It doesn't use any mobile data and my experience has been that for larger files (like photos) it's slower than molasses. The only reason I use it is because it's more convenient to "beam" files to my wife's phone than to ask her to retrieve them from an attachment or a cloud server.

 

[Rukbat]

Near Field Communications is longer.

It's like Bluetooth, it doesn't use mobile data. It's meant for short transactions, though - like a credit card or a v-card would do. Faster than BT? No.

The advantages are ... well, once you have the data set up right, you can tap a NFC-enabled credit card reader to pay. You can exchange name, number, etc., info with people easily. And there will probably be a lot of things people think up now that the technology is there. Who ever thought of using my phone to tell Youtube to play a video on my smart TV when they invented Youtube or cellphones?

Now they issue babies SS numbers at birth - in 25 years they may implant a smart phone at birth.

 

[ralphsteven]

NFC is used for small data transmission (this was the purpose for which it was designed). For all other files use the Bluetooth