HEADLINE NEWS
France: French Bank to Launch MicroSD Trial in NFC Showcase Cities
Visa and the BPCE banking group plan to hold their trial in Nice and Strasbourg among a combined 500 users, who will get microSD cards preloaded with a Visa payWave application. They’ll insert the cards into their smartphones or into a specially designed case for the iPhone–and tap the phones to pay for purchases of up to €20 (US$28.29) without entering a PIN. For the trial, the cards will work in any of the last three iPhone models, the Samsung Galaxy S or the BlackBerry 9700 or 9780. The iPhones, which do not have a built-in microSD card slot, require the special case. The other phones require a booster antenna in a sticker affixed to the inside back covers of the phones.
The trial is one of at least six that have already launched with microSD cards, including such major U.S. banks as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The French trial is significant in that it’s being held at the site of the French demonstration project in Nice. Visa, a sponsor of the trial, appears to be interested in microSD technology, which enables banks to bypass operators to offer mobile payment. But firm issuing models are still yet to be worked out for microSDs.
* Trusted Service Manager: Defined loosely to include companies or other organizations securely distributing, provisioning and managing applications, generally over the air, on secure elements in NFC mobile phones; or licensing their platforms for this purpose. N/A: Not available or not applicable. Last update: June. 2011
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