HEADLINE NEWS
MasterCard Certifies Two BlackBerrys to Run PayPass on SIMs
Research in Motion has announced that MasterCard Worldwide has certified two of its NFC-enabled BlackBerrys to run MasterCard’s PayPass payment application, and mobile operator France Telecom-Orange is interested in introducing the phones for NFC payment and other services.
RIM said the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 are the first NFC-enabled smartphones that MasterCard has certified for PayPass running on SIM cards.
The certification helps clear the way for such mobile operators as Orange to introduce the phones for payment in such countries as the United Kingdom and France, where the telco has launched NFC services. Update: Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates’ largest telco, has also said it plans to introduce the Bold 9900 for PayPass-based NFC payments with an unnamed bank or banks this year. End update.
MasterCard has already certified the Google Nexus S 4G smartphone to run PayPass as part of last month's Google Wallet launch in the United States. But this model stores the PayPass application on an embedded secure chip, not on a SIM card.
Certification ensures payment applications, such as PayPass, meet standards for security, functionality and interoperability. MasterCard has granted waivers in the past for trials and some limited rollouts of PayPass on NFC phones and bridge technologies, such as iPhone attachments and chips that connect with flexible antennas and SIM cards.
To roll out payment with the newly certified BlackBerrys, mobile operators would also need MasterCard-certified SIM cards or NFC-enabled SIMs for which MasterCard had granted waivers. A MasterCard spokeswoman told NFC Times there still are no SIMs certified by the payment network, though some are undergoing testing.
RIM has begun shipping the Bold 9900 and Curve 9360, which support GSM networks, along with closely related models, the Bold 9930 and Curve 9350 and 9370, starting in late August or September.
All of the models support NFC. The phones carry an embedded secure chip in addition to a standard single-wire protocol connection–the latter enabling secure applications to be stored on SIM cards issued by mobile operators. But none of the phones has yet been introduced for payment, or reportedly for other formal NFC applications, for that matter.
Vincent Barnaud, director of contactless services at France Telecom-Orange Group, told NFC Times he could not say when Orange branch operators in the United Kingdom, France or elsewhere would introduce the newly certified BlackBerry models.
“We are committed to actively marketing NFC devices, and these new smartphones will help accelerate the adoption of mobile NFC services secured by an Orange SIM, including mobile payments,” said Barnaud in a statement.
Orange is keen to get more NFC models supporting SIM-based NFC applications into its stores to support its UK and French commercial launches, which remain small.
In France, Orange said earlier it expected to have seven to 10 NFC models on sale by the end of the year, including one or more BlackBerrys and one or more Android-based phones. The telco later said it would introduce the NFC version of the Galaxy S II from Samsung, which is an Android phone.
Orange in France has NFC-enabled feature phones from Samsung and LG Electronics on sale, along with the Samsung Wave 578, supporting Samsung’s own bada operating system.
Orange UK recently introduced the Wave 578, which is considered a smartphone, for its Quick Tap mobile-payment service. The telco launched the service last May with UK issuer Barclaycard. Quick Tap stores PayPass on SIM cards that Orange–and soon its joint venture partner, T-Mobile UK–will issue. The only other phone that supports QuickTap is the Samsung Tocco Lite, a feature phone.
But Orange launched the Wave 578 under a waiver from MasterCard, which has yet to certify PayPass to run on SIM cards in the phones.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedInSyndicate
