News
New Class of MicroPass Solutions Promises to Enable Existing Mobile Phones to Make Contactless Payments
October 2009 by Marc Jacob
INSIDE Contactless announced an initiative to create a new class of mobile payment solutions that banks, brands, transit agencies and others can deploy quickly, easily and in a highly targeted way starting in 2010. INSIDE has already engaged with several innovative technology companies that share its vision to develop a variety of mobile payment solutions based on INSIDE’s proven, certified MicroPass® platform that will enable existing mobile phones to support mobile payments, as well as transit, ID and access control applications. A number of these solutions expected to reach the market as early as this fall.
INSIDE has pioneered the first suite of add-on mobile payment solutions, contactless sticker products based on INSIDE’s MicroPass platform. Mobile handset stickers can turn just about any personal item – from a mobile phone to an employee ID badge – into a payment device. Although not electronically connected to the phone, these stickers are able to support debit, prepaid debit and credit card payments, and are convenient plastic card replacements.
Several new mobile payment solutions coming to market from partners through INSIDE’s initiative will enable mobile phones to integrate with a MicroPass-based secure element outside the phone, enabling solutions to be deployed more rapidly in 2010. Using microSD cards, existing BlueTooth channels, existing data connections, and other methods to communicate with the phone, these peripheral solutions will open the door to more robust, NFC-like payment, transit and access control applications in a next phase of deployment. These solutions will allow a mobile phone user to easily make a payment from among several virtual credit or debit cards stored within the mobile payment peripheral device, see the balance remaining on prepaid debit cards or transit passes, and even collect and redeem coupons and loyalty points.
MicroPass products have already been approved by Visa, MasterCard and Discover Network for use in a number of card products, providing manufacturers with an advantage as they work towards final product qualification.
The MicroPass family of intelligent hardware platforms are used to power more certified payment products than any other contactless technology, and have been designed from the ground up to support multiple contactless applications, including contactless payment, transit fare collection, access control, retail loyalty programs and lightweight ID applications. Its low power and high performance, combined with fast transaction time and outstanding read distance, enables MicroPass to deliver a superior user experience for a broad range of new mobile payment solutions.
Technology companies developing mobile payment solutions who would like to participate in this initiative, as well as banks, retailers, transit agencies, access control companies and others who are interested in developing new mobile payment applications, should contact INSIDE Contactless for more information.
