Brasil Telecom selected Gemalto to provide USIM cards for the launch of its 3G network this month. The USIM technology along with software adapted for 3G networks and loaded into the cards will enable Brasil Telecom’s users to access value-added services and benefit from higher levels of security on electronic transactions performed with their mobile devices.

The USIM cards provide mutual authentication between the user and the network, which enables mobile Internet users to perform transactions in a safer manner. Benefits are that voice and data traffic is encrypted in the 3G network, especially important for financial transactions and corporate activities.  

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iDTRONIC has introduced two versions of a new RFID industrial reader/writer called Bluebox, capable of reading and writing LF and HF tags in harsh industrial environments. The devices are resistant to temperatures up to 55 degrees Celsius and are completely sealed against moisture and dust.

The 125 kHz version of the Bluebox reader/writer supports all EM 4100, 4550, NXP Hitag 1/S and Atmel Temic 5567 tags and is available with 5 different external antennas. The ISO 15693 version of the new Industrial Reader/Writer supports ISO15693, ISO14443A/B and the MIFARE family of tags, and is available with two different external antennas.

The Bluebox is able to store up to 30,000 tags which can be preprogrammed to customer requirements, and is capable of accurate readings in high tag density environments.  

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

If contactless payments are to take off, then every card produced by credit card companies in the future needs to include a contactless chip. More importantly, consumers using the card need to be better educated on how to recognize the card and how to use it. Those were just a couple of tips delivered by an executive from a major takeout restaurant chain at the recent CTST show in Orlando.

One problem is that despite promotional efforts from the major credit card issuers about simply tapping a contactless card against a reader, more education is still needed–among consumers and store employees.

During the CTST show co-sponsored by the Smart Card Alliance and SourceMedia, Gavin Waugh, vice president and assistant treasurer for Arby’s Restaurant Group, described his company’s experiences with contactless cards. It wasn’t pretty and shows that contactless technology has a long way to go before it comes close to equaling payments made the mag stripe way.

The company has implemented contactless at its 1,000 corporate-owned stores with 100% inside the restaurants, and just 80% installation at its drive-throughs. He said that some existing stores’ drive through areas weren’t conducive to having a contactless reader which could have caused longer lines. The company’s franchise operations aren’t required to implement contactless technology. While he did not present figures on the number of franchisees, he did say there was interest from them to implement contactless. 

U.S. Bank customers in Colorado, Utah, Missouri, and California will now be issued debit cards with the Visa payWave contactless payment feature. Visa payWave technology enables customers to make a purchase by simply holding their card within two inches of a secure reader instead of swiping it.

U.S. Bank customers in Denver and Salt Lake City who already hold a debit card can request a new card with Visa payWave functionality; some customers in California and Missouri received an automatic upgrade to the new card. The new cards carry the same zero liability protection and have the same fraud monitoring U.S. Bank offers with all debit cards.

In addition to merchants who allow payWave payments, U.S. Bank is working with USA Technologies to install 400 contactless vending machines in the Denver area, to provide customers with more places to use their new contactless card.  

The Chinese Olympic Committee has offered more details about the RFID-enabled tickets being issued for the Beijing Olympics this summer. All tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies will include RFID tags containing personal information about the ticket holder, including passport information and home and e-mail addresses.

The information is included in an attempt to thwart counterfeiting of the tickets, which have a face value of $720. But the tickets raise concern among security experts, who theorize that an extremely secure RFID system to handle the tickets could cause serious tie-ups at the gates, while a lax security system would make ticket holders’ personal data easy prey to hackers. Officials say the Games’ security team will employ an IT team of at least 4,000 experts with 1,000 servers at their disposal, testing the system for the next two months.

Officials originally planned to embed RFID tags in all 6.8 million tickets issued for Olympics events. These plans apparently went by the wayside, along with a plan to include place a photo of each ticket holder on their ticket. The RFID tags will only be in tickets for the opening and closing events, and photos of the tickets released to the press show no photos on them.  

Promoting flexibility, quality and cost-effective production, printer manufacturer Atlantic Zeiser introduced three new printing solutions at drupa 2008, a once-every-four-year conference at Dusseldorf, Germany that’s billed as the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world.

Atlantic’s new offerings include the OMEGA 210 digital industrial inkjet printer, the FLEXOJET 600 modular system for UV printing solutions, and the BRAILLEJET digital printer for Braille printing.