May 18, 2026
In October 2025, NFC Forum, the global standards body for NFC technology, launched the latest version of its Certification Release – CR15.
To learn more about the impact of CR15 since its launch, we spoke with NFC Forum’s Executive Director, Mike McCamon, who also shared his insights into emerging NFC use cases and future focus areas for NFC Forum.
1) CR15 has now been in use for several months. How would you assess the rollout so far—particularly in terms of market adoption and implementation by manufacturers?
NFC Release 15 and CR15 was a community-led, cross-industry effort to extend the range of certified compliant NFC contactless connections up to 20mm. Since its release, CR15 implementation has continued to build strong momentum.
Buoyed by test tools developed by providers such as Comprion, more and more players in the contactless ecosystem are considering how their devices can harness the extended range to create next-generation hardware. Thanks to the provisions set in place by CR15, these leaders can innovate with confidence, safe in the knowledge that their products’ contactless connections will function as expected first time, every time.
2) From your perspective, what are currently the biggest challenges for manufacturers and developers in implementing CR15 requirements?
Some of the biggest perceived challenges for manufacturers or developers when implementing any new technical requirements are cost implications, practical restrictions and backwards compatibility. For those looking to implement CR15 requirements, the good news is that interoperability was a key concern for NFC Forum when developing both NFC Release 15 and CR15.
While new devices in the field will be able to safely and securely support extended range, a number of incumbent devices in the field do not have hardware capable of operating at this increased performance. That’s why CR15 takes a modular approach, mandating that all new products within our generic device classes – Mobile, Reader and Card Emulation and Universal devices – are compliant with the new Operating Volume (OV20), while also crucially remaining compatible with legacy devices built using the previous Operating Volume (OV5).
3) What use cases are seeing the most benefit from NFC Forum certification, and are you seeing growing momentum in access control more specifically?
NFC Forum is always working to meet evolving market needs with our standards, as well as help to ensure consistency of behavior across NFC implementations, set the foundation for interoperability and empower the creation of next generation solutions.
For instance, NFC is increasingly the technology of choice for seamless, secure authentication – most notably in automotive and physical access control. A notable share of NFC Forum certified products are in the automotive space. Through our partnership with Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), NFC Forum certifies NFC components used in its Digital Key™ initiative, enabling drivers to unlock and start their vehicle with a certified smartphone or wearable.
In the physical access control space, one of the issues that the industry is looking to solve through standardization is the need for precise orientation at entry points. The extended range capabilities introduced as part of NFC Release 15 and codified in certification under CR15 can help to alleviate this and we remain committed to working together with other industry associations in the access control space – like the Connectivity Standards Alliance – to drive seamless user interactions.
4) What comes after CR15? Are there already new topics or developments that are receiving particular focus?
We published our latest Technology Roadmap earlier this year, outlining the focus areas to be progressed by the Forum over the coming years. These include faster data rates, end-to-end application testing, and security advancements, evolving NFC Wireless Charging, advancing multi-purpose tap and exploring new digital key requirements.
Developed by the NFC Forum Board of Directors in consultation with our membership and industry partners, the Roadmap outlines our vision for the development of NFC Forum Standards and its corresponding technical capabilities to ensure that NFC technology continues to serve current and future market needs.
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