Near Field Communication – or NFC – has been in the news a fair bit recently, in fact just last week Nokia announced a partnership with Proxama to bring a range of NFC-related services to the Nokia C7. But what exactly is NFC all about? We take a closer look after the cut...

Nokia has been at the forefront of NFC's development for years now, with the Nokia 6131 NFC having featured the technology on board back in 2007.

But it's only today that NFC is really starting to take off and make its way into the mainstream. Juniper Research predicts that by the year 2014 one in five smartphones will be NFC-enabled. Doesn't seem like a lot, does it? Not until you realise one in five means you're talking about 300 million phones.

So isn't it about time you got to grips with one of the hottest technologies in the mobile world - especially since powerful smartphones such as the Nokia C7 have the technology front and centre in their list of specifications? We think so, and we've lined up a bit of help to get you started.

Check out our Nokia C7 Review Roundup

First up, let's look at what NFC actually means. To put it in technical terms, near field communication is a short-range, low-power communications protocol between two devices that enables interaction via electromagnetic radio fields.

In practice, it means you can transfer data between two NFC-capable objects – such as your Nokia smartphone and an NFC scanner – simply by placing them near to each other. Unlike the likes of Bluetooth, NFC is designed specifically to work only over very short distances.

Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to look at the far more interesting side of NFC, and that's what you can do with it. Broadly speaking, NFC can be broken down into three main applications: sharing, pairing and transaction.

Transaction-based NFC systems have been the first to get off the ground – in fact, this type of NFC is already used by millions of Londoners every day in the form of the Oyster Card. An NFC-enabled mobile phone will soon be able to do the job of a credit or debit card – simply tap your phone against a payment terminal and your account will automatically be debited with the payment amount. Other likely applications include replacing hotel keycards and library cards.

The sharing side of NFC will mainly take the form of passive tags that share info with your Nokia smartphone, but unlike say the QR code system currently in place, you won't need to open a dedicated app or point your camera at the code to receive the information. NFC will do it all for you, whether it's picking up a list of ingredients from a food tag, or cinema show times from a film advert.

The third form of NFC – pairing – will enable smartphones to interact with each other, such as to share contact details, or immediately configure accessories with no more than a single tap.

Of course, that's just scratching the surface of NFC's potential, and it's only now that we're starting to move towards turning that potential into reality. As far back as 2005, Nokia launched the Nokia 3220 with an NFC-modified back cover, then followed up with 2007's Nokia 6131.

What's different today is that payment systems from the likes of Visa are finally getting off the ground, and mobile providers are starting to move towards supporting NFC over their networks.

It'll still take some time to iron out the wrinkles, but it's becoming increasingly clear that NFC has a bright and exciting future, and that Nokia will be right at the heart of it.

Are you excited about NFC? Can you think of any interesting applications for the technology you'd like to see become a reality? Let us know in the Comments!