Near Field Communications World » Verifone

Rfinity expands BYU-Idaho University NFC pilot to local stores and shoppers

Sarah Clark — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:58:46 +0000

Rfinity has signed a deal with Citizens Community Bank that sees its NFC payment trial at Brigham Young University's Idaho campus expanded to include both non-University students and off-campus merchants.

The trial at BYU-Idaho began in September 2009. It was an instant hit with students who used their mobile phones to pay for everything from candy bars to $1,600 laptops and 1,000 students and staff at the university are now using Rfinity's technology.

Rfinity's technology works by attaching a unique, one-time-use encrypted code to each transaction, activated by the user entering a personal authorization code. This protects personal information from being intercepted or used for payment in case of theft or losing one’s phone, making payment more convenient and secure than credit or debit cards.

The technology is compatible with NFC and, to begin with, the company was using microSD cards as the host for its solution. With the expansion to the local town, Rfinity has also added NFC adhesive labels that either go on the phone or inside the phone’s battery cover, enabling the company to also support phones that do not have a microSD slot, such as the iPhone.

Rfinity has also now integrated its POS software into terminals supplied by both VeriFone and Vivotech. "This makes it very easy for us to deploy to new merchants whose cash registers already support the necessary communication interfaces to the reader," Steve McCown, Rfinity's interim CEO, has told NFC World.

"Whereas the previous phase of our university pilot was geared towards proving and refining the technology, this phase is geared towards simplifying user acquisition, enabling both on and off campus purchases, and allowing users to select from multiple payment accounts using a single NFC device," McCown explains. "To facilitate this, we have changed the way that new users enroll in RFinity. With our current system, users can enrol right at the point of sale using a ~20 second sign-up process. Phased in during the pilot, we will also be enabling new users to subscribe on the website and then pick up an NFC sticker at the POS."

"Perhaps, the most interesting addition to our product offering is our creation of a (patent-pending) person-to-person payment method that does not require any new hardware to be added to the cell phone," he added. "Think of it like PayPal’s Bump ... but applicable to nearly all cell phones."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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US firm to offer Chinese RF SIM system worldwide

Sarah Clark — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:51:20 +0000

The RF SIM payments system developed by Chinese firm Trunkbow, in which VeriFone became an investor yesterday, is to be launched worldwide via US start-up MobilePay, the company's chairman Rick May tells NFC World.

"The China RF-SIM system of SIM/firmware cards and Backend Server is entering a worldwide launch, exclusively by MobilePay, a Colorado USA Corporation," May says in a comment to our opinion article 'Has China Mobile found the business model for mobile contactless and NFC?':

The movement to the RF-SIM (2.45 GHz) in China is a good move toward an international “standard”. I expect a reaction to that statement. However, the RF-SIM is a clean frequency that is a standard by itself. No special requirements for different protocol based on different parts of the world. And, the RF-SIM has a large memory for menu guided OTA additions of any local special transaction processes, such as event access, transportation, etc. Any bank’s local Mobile Banking Application can be added OTA. The RF-SIM includes the interface for loyalties and barcode reading/referencing. The RF-SIM provides all requirements to function as a GS1 retail transaction device. Any RF-SIM cell phone has full mobile financial transaction capabilities, including eWallet, Debit/Credit cards, etc.
In China, the RF-SIM has a special firmware to provide high security communications. The firmware links the RF-SIM to a comprehensive financial processor backend. This backend provides the link to the carrier and the financial clearinghouse such as China Union Pay and First Data Corporation. This is a highly secure system. The actual carrier and RF-SIM relationship in China is a three way exclusive contract. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have a contract with the SIM Firmware / Backend Processor Company, which has a contract with China Union Pay for the financial processing.
The RF-SIM is a product which can be added to most current GSM phones – allowing a broad and quick entry to NFC around the world. The major retailers in China, who are adding a 2.45 GHz reader to their authorization terminals, will do the same outside of China.
The secure firmware in the RF-SIM provides for cell phone to cell phone direct transfer of funds. The RF-SIM is a Transceiver – allowing a cell phone with an RF-SIM to function as an authorization terminal. Finally, a true low cost mobile POS.
There is an odd Chinese video circulating on the internet showing the many uses of the RF-SIM. Funny, but not a true use of a short read communications process that functions as required by financial standards for secure transactions.
The China RF-SIM system of SIM/firmware cards and Backend Server is entering a worldwide launch, exclusively by MobilePAY, a Colorado USA Corporation. The RF-SIM has been in test and operation in China for three years. MobilePAY has been preparing the RF-SIM for worldwide launch for the past year. Many major companies will be involved. Phase one of the launch will be person to person transfer of funds. As an example, in the underdeveloped parts of the world, the local grocer or doctor will simply use an RF-SIM cell phone to receive NFC payments for the funds received by their customers.
Here is to a real NFC standard.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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VeriFone buys stake in RF SIM supplier

Sarah Clark — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:35:53 +0000

VeriFone Holdings has announced that it is co-lead investor in a reverse merger financing for Trunkbow International Holdings Ltd, a Chinese mobile payments and value-added service applications company specialising in 2.4GHz (RF SIM) NFC solutions.

VeriFone invested $5 million of the approximately US$22.5 million raised, giving the company an 8.6% stake. The transaction values Trunkbow at a post-money valuation of $65 million and Albert Liu, VeriFone senior vice president and general counsel, has now joined the company's board of directors.

VeriFone has also been named the preferred supplier of payment systems technology to Trunkbow and says some 125,000 mobile payment terminals integrated with Trunkbow's 2.4 GHz technology are expected to be deployed over the next three years.

"It is clear that mobile phones are increasingly playing an active role in the initiation of payment transactions, both within the existing payments infrastructure and also with telecommunications carriers like China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom," says Douglas G Bergeron, CEO of VeriFone. "VeriFone's investment in Trunkbow provides us with a seat at the table for cell phone payments in the world's largest cell phone market."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Mocapay introduces SMS gift and loyalty system, plans move to NFC

Sarah Clark — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:15:48 +0000

The US startup's closed loop payments and marketing technology has been integrated with Verifone transaction terminals and will migrate to NFC later.

MOBILE PLATFORM: Mocapay's closed-loop payments system, now in beta, will migrate to NFC

A mobile platform from US startup Mocapay provides merchants with the ability to mobile-enable existing closed loop prepaid, gift and loyalty programs. Currently the system uses text messages but the company has plans to migrate its solution to NFC in the future.

With Mocapay, cardholders can transact at the point-of-sale, access their account balance and transaction history, find the nearest location and reload their account. In addition Mocapay gives retailers the tools to send targeted one-to-one marketing messages to their customers.

Mocapay says its solution can be integrated with any point-of-sale system. For its unveiling at the National Retail Federation convention in New York earlier this month, however, it was on show running on Verifone's MX800 series terminals.

"We're very excited about the potential for mobile payments and Mocapay's innovative approach," said Jeff Wakefield, vice president of marketing at Verifone. "Mocapay's mobile payments solution demonstrates the flexibility of the MX800 Series architecture and its suitability for value-added applications."

As well as text messaging, Mocapay "also supports a bar code payment system that can work with some point of sale terminals, and will eventually support NFC," chief executive Kevin Grieve told American Banker:

The system is designed to work with existing payment accounts, so merchants do need not to deploy new gift or loyalty cards to begin using Mocapay. Nor do they have to stop selling plastic cards if consumers want to use both the phone and the card to access the same account.
The Mocapay system makes it possible for users to register a prepaid card account through their mobile phones, and then access the account with their phones to check their balances. Any mobile phone with a browser can produce a bar code image that can be read by some terminals; people can also use text messaging to request a one-time-use text code that can be punched into a keypad or read aloud to a cashier to authorize a debit to the prepaid account.
Mr Grieve said some terminals already include the readers needed to scan the bar code images on a phone for payment, and others can offer the capability through add-on hardware.
He said he expects the bar code system to eventually become more popular than either of the two text message systems, but he does not expect that change to occur overnight. "You have a very long time before that base gets changed, and so that's why we offer the four different methods," he said.
The text message codes expire in 30 minutes or when they are used. Mr Grieve said the code could even be shouted across a store without compromising the card account's security, since it can only be used to initiate a single transaction.
Mocapay's system was tested in 2007 with about 200 Boulder merchants. When that test was completed, the company focused on integrating the payment system with merchants' gift card programs.
Its first customer, J.A.D. Inc.'s ShortStop Stop convenience store chain, began offering Mocapay's payment technology to customers in November.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Cartes 2008: NFC pops up all over the show

Sarah Clark — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:55:36 +0000

Anyone who expected to visit Cartes 2008 and find just the odd NFC application hidden somewhere round the back of a small stand lost in the outer reaches of the exhibition hall was in for quite a surprise — Near Field Communications World spotted forty companies talking NFC at this year's event...

The NFC Forum had its 'traditional' NFC Zone at Cartes & Identification 2008, the main smart card industry trade show of the year, with demonstrations available from members including Legic, Nexperts, Toppan Forms, Stolpan and others, and also held a press briefing to announce its new chairman, Sony FeliCa's Koichi Tagawa.

But, this year, NFC also had a presence in the exhibition halls that went way beyond the confines of the NFC Zone itself. In particular, contactless stickers were on display on several stands, most of the established card industry players were involved with NFC in one form or another and it became very clear that the whole Trusted Service Manager marketplace is going to become highly competitive indeed.

NFC Forum stalwarts NXP and Sony FeliCa both had substantial stands at Cartes, with Sony FeliCa making a significant impact at the show, along with its new North American manufacturer Versatile Card Technology (VCT). NXP had a particularly busy time, announcing a significant extension of its Mifare licensing deal with Renesas and providing details of the new Mifare4Mobile initiative.

Amongst the specialist contactless and NFC suppliers, Vivotech had a flurry of announcements to make. In the last few weeks, the company has supplied its NFC provisioning software to Visa for its new NFC payments trial in Guatemala, added Atari and Nintendo veteran Don Kingsborough to its board of directors and launched the ViVOpay Kiosk II, a flexible NFC-compatible contactless payment reader designed for use in kiosks, turnstiles, bus validators and other ticketing applications. Vivotech was also a finalist in the loyalty category at the Cartes show's Sesames awards with its NFC-based one-to-one marketing, location-based promotion and smart poster management system.

Card industry players

Most of the major card industry players now have an NFC offering, whether it's an NFC-enabled SIM, reader or service management solution. Oberthur launched a software development kit dubbed 'NFC in a Box' whilst Giesecke & Devrient picked up a Sesames award for its ProxSIM, the NFC-enabled SIM used in Deutsche Bahn's NFC trials.

Sagem Orga, meanwhile, announced a development deal with French start-up Neowave that will see the production of a USB 'smart object' with a contactless interface that also contains a SIM. Known as SIMply U and based on Neowave's Weneo NFC technology, the idea is that the device can act as a bridge between a subscriber's mobile phone and their PC, enabling a mobile operator to offer new, secure internet-based services.

Beyond this, says Sagem Orga, the technology partnership will also explore new use cases for such devices in areas such as transportation, payment, location-based services and entertainment.

SCM Microsystems also has an 'NFC dongle', the SCL3710, which is designed to provide a link between NFC-enabled mobile devices and computer or web applications. The company has also recently released the @MAXX Prime, also aimed at creating a bridge between a customer's mobile phone and his PC.

Gemalto demonstrated NFC applications and a new prototype handset from LG. The KU380-NFC, currently available for demonstration purposes only, uses STMicroelectronics' ST21NFCA system-on-chip and features both PayPass contactless payment capabilities via a Gemalto (U)SIM card and built-in contactless reader functions.

STMicroelectronics also has a new NFC chip, the ST33F1M, the first in a new ST33 family targeting the high-end SIM market and based on the SC300 highly secure version of the ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit core. The new chip features 1.2Mbytes of embedded Flash memory with 30Kbytes of RAM and an SWP (single wire protocol) interface for NFC.

Elsewhere amongst the chip manufacturers, Infineon had a prototype of a new Secure Element on show, alongside its SLE 88 family for Mobile NFC — smart card microcontrollers with SWP (Single Wire Protocol) and Mifare interfaces — as well as its my-d NFC chip for Type 2 NFC tags.

Samsung also has a new NFC chip on the horizon, with a launch date set for the first quarter of 2009, and brought Korean IT specialists SK C&C along to Cartes to demonstrate the development work the company has been doing with the µSIMneo NFC-enabled USIM.

Visa and MasterCard also had large stands, predominantly promoting their respective contactless PayWave and PayPass solutions, but both also had mobile payments experts on hand to discuss NFC as well.

And, on the payment terminals front, the 'big three' of Verifone, Hypercom and Ingenico all now offer NFC-compatible contactless card readers.

The product evaluators, consultants and testers have also moved firmly into the NFC space with Collis, Comprion and Soliatis all offering NFC testing and evaluation solutions at the show. FIME, meanwhile, announced that it has started working in partnership with Inside Contactless in a bid to identify and resolve potential conflicts in the interoperability of NFC devices and to develop a comprehensive process, support and service portfolio for testing and certifying NFC mobile handsets.

Stickers

Contactless stickers seemed to be everywhere with both established supplier On Track Innovations and Inside Contactless demonstrating products. Whilst, for most, the idea of a contactless sticker attached to the back of a mobile phone is a very long way from being true NFC, their potential as a way to acclimatise consumers to the idea of using their phones to make a payment and to leapfrog the need to have an installed base of NFC-enabled handsets before a payments system can be introduced is clear.

Inside's new contactless stickers were being demonstrated by both Inside Contactless and US card manufacturer CPI Card Group, which has signed a manufacturing agreement with Inside that will see it produce the new payment stickers in the US. CPI says it expects to ship several million stickers over the next year and is in talks with ten top US financial institutions. And, in a separate agreement, HID Global signed up with Inside to manufacture MicroPass contactless prelaminates in the US (which CPI will then turn into finished stickers).

Twinlinx, meanwhile, was generating a lot of excitement with its My-Max prototype, a sticker that combines a Bluetooth receiver, NFC transmitter and a chip which adds a layer of encryption. Developed in partnership with Mobile Distillery, My-Max is designed to let any Bluetooth-enabled handset act as a fully-featured NFC device. To create the solution, Mobile Distillery worked with Twinlinx to create a Java ME layer which can access Twinlinx's Bluetooth NFC module, called My-Max. This module, which takes the form of a small sticker that sits on the back of the handset, combines a Bluetooth receiver and NFC transmitter, as well as a chip which adds a layer of encryption, making sure any data sent using the module is secure.

And Chinese smart card manufacturer Watchdata caused a lot of interest with its SIMpass 'Single Card Near Field Communication (SC-NFC)' solution. Already extensively field tested in China and Thailand, SIMpass comes in two versions. In the first it is built into a handset as a secure element and in the second it is retro-fitted to existing handsets (the company says it is compatible with 80% of handsets). Here, the antenna is connected to the SIMpass module and the SIMpass module itself is inserted as normal into the SIM slot on the phone. Attached to the SIM, though, is the antenna and the user simply removes the back cover of the phone and then places the antenna between the battery and the back cover where it can be kept securely.

Trusted service managers

There was lots of activity in the Trusted Service Manager (TSM) space, an area that seems to get more complex by the week. Existing suppliers Venyon and Gemalto were there, of course, along with Bell ID, which has since announced it is working with British mobile banking services provider Monitise to establish a shared trusted service manager approach for NFC systems.

ABnote was also talking trusted service managers at the show, after announcing its entry into the TSM space with the creation of a new partnership with Datacard called Redwave Solutions. The new company plans to create a global trusted service manager and will offer NFC application and support services via a network of value added resellers and secure processing centers.

Also being demonstrated on the ABnote stand was the new remote application management solution for NFC that ABnote subsidiary Proxama has developed in conjunction with Aconite. The new solution allows a customer to do everything from cancelling the payment application because their phone has been lost or stolen to adding a ticketing application or an access control facility for a new job, all over-the-air.

• Did we miss your company? If you were demonstrating NFC at Cartes but we missed you out, please let us know! You can leave a comment below or email news@nearfieldworld.com and we'll add you in...

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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