Mastercard has announced partners for the launch of the new contactless payment program PayPass. An estimated 15,000 consumers will participate in a trial with numerous merchants in the Orlando, Florida area. The card/terminal interaction is based the Mastercard Proximity Chip – Online Profile, which is a subset of EMV/ISO 7816 commands. Issuers: Chase, Citibank, MBNA […]

Japanese credit-card giant JCB Co. Ltd. is backing three Asian contactless card projects, convinced consumers will appreciate the quicker throughput and convenience of contactless technology. Two projects are in Japan while a third is in Taiwan. In Taiwan, JCB issuer Taipai Bank already has distributed roughly 3,000 smart cards to employees of First International Computers, […]

FreedomPay and Bank of America have generated considerable interest with the QuickWave program. The fall of 2002 saw the launch of a QuickWave pilot program by Bank of America near its Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters. The QuickWave program pilot involves 15 downtown restaurants and shops, bank-installed equipment and about 10,000 Bank of America employees. Participants […]

This month the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) selected ERG Transit Systems and Northrop Grumman IT to install and operate a new Regional Customer Service Center for its smart card-based fare collection system, known as SmarTrip. The project involves the establishment and operation of a smart card customer service center, card management, and the […]

Alien Technology Corporation has won an order from Gillette for 500 million low-cost RFID tags. This is the first major commercial order for products incorporating the electronic product code (EPC) developed by researchers and member companies at the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alien Technology credits its patented manufacturing approach, Fluidic Self-Assembly, […]

BY JANE ADAMS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Traditionally, contactless technology has been used primarily for mass transit. However, during 2002 both Visa and MasterCard announced contactless payments specifications based on standardized contactless technology. Its use has also been growing in the access control and network security, and authentication markets. While contact cards need physical contact to communicate, […]

HID proximity cards can be read at distances up to 10 meters (33 feet) when combined with a signal booster from the Dutch RFID technology company, NEDAP. The new device called the Combi-Booster is designed for use in vehicles as a means to transmit both a vehicle identification number (stored in the Combi-Booster) and the […]