Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Test yields positive results for Bling Nation's new payments platform

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bling Nation has completed a 10-day test of its closed loop payment system prior to a rollout its Community Payment Service. The trial involved contactless BlingTags being used by 32 employees of a company that operates an online social network.

The closed loop transaction network links local merchants and banks to enable local processing of debit transactions, bypassing national or international payment networks. While the social network wasn’t identified, DigitalTransactionsNews points out that Facebook is also headquartered in Palo Alto.

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Barnes International announced that its updated Visa GPR Test module now complies with the latest version of Visa’s Global Personalization Requirements.

The updated test tool will offer evaluation of a chip product to ensure it meets industry and payment scheme certification standards. This reduces a product’s time to market as the chip is aligned to Visa Specifications throughout the development life cycle and before applying for official Visa approval.

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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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As some may recall back in June 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York launched tap-and-go contactless payments for commuters to enter select subway stations and participating bus lines using MasterCard PayPass-enabled terminals. Well, the results are in.

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Bling Nation has temporarily shut down its mobile payments service in order to roll out a new product later this year, reports American Banker.

Since 2009, the Palo Alto-based company has been providing its NFC sticker in areas deemed “underserved” by major card companies. By affixing the NFC stickers to their mobile phones, customers could conduct contactless payments at local merchants through their community bank.

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STMicroelectronics developed a new RF testing method that uses electromagnetic waves instead of contact probes to remotely evaluate wafers equipped with RFID ICs.

According to ST, this “contactless” approach results in higher yields, shorter testing times and lower product cost. In addition, contactless testing allows RF circuits to be tested under conditions that are close to the real application conditions.

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Collis has announced the launch of its Visa Mobile Payment Specification (VMCPS) Test Suite, enabling the functional testing of UICC or secure element-based contactless mobile payments applications.

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