Turn your cellphone into a contactless payment device - with a sticker!

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 05:44

Business IT - Technology

Juniper Research is predicting that, by 2014, one in six cellphone subscribers globally with have phones equipped with near field communications and able to be used as a contactless payment device. In the meantime, Giesecke & Devrient has come up with a simpler solution that turns any cellphone into a contactless credit card or debit card, after a fashion.

The G&D Convego Air Mobile solution is simply a sticker that contains the full functionality of a credit or debit card. According to G&D "Once the thin and pliable foil has been affixed to a cellphone or PDA the device can be used to pay bills at all cash terminals and ticket machines supporting the worldwide contactless MasterCard PayPass standard."

There is no functional integration between sticker and phone: it's simply a convenient way to carry a credit card. Nevertheless, according to G&D, "The pay sticker is an important transitional technology on the way to contactless payment transactions by cellphone." The sticker measures 43 x 33 mms and, "can therefore be affixed to any recent cellphone, smartphone or PDA," G&D says.

The surface of the sticker provides enough space for customer-specific designs and optical personalisation by laser engraving, is certified for MasterCard PayPass and can be used on all payment terminals which support contactless payment using MasterCard PayPass. G&D says it is already being used in several pilot projects by various banks in Europe and North America.

It could conceivably provide financial services organisations with an easy way to condition the market and, perhaps, lock in customers in advance of what Juniper Research says will be market accounting for transactions worth $US110b annually by 2014. And Juniper forecasts a considerable market for services centred around NFC payments.

"[The Juniper] NFC report determined that payments and retail transactions such as coupons would combine to transform the phone into not only a payment tool but also a retail tool in addition to its many current functions," Juniper said.

According to the report's author, Howard Wilcox, "Our research found that both the business model and the rollout of point of sale NFC readers at merchant locations are issues that need solving – depending on the country. As these are overcome NFC is poised to enter an operational build-up phase culminating in mass service rollouts across many countries, typically in metro areas driven by transport ticketing."

Juniper says that NFC adoption for mobile payments is "Currently ...centred on the Far East, with use very limited outside of this region."