DeviceFidelity launches low cost microSD-based NFC solution

In2Pay is designed to be distributed to customers using a card issuer’s existing personalisation and distribution infrastructure and can include multiple applications such as payments and transit or payments and access control.

DEVICE FIDELITY: The firm's microSD-based NFC solution will go into volume production next year
DEVICE FIDELITY: The firm’s microSD-based NFC solution will go into volume production next year

Mobile contactless payments specialist DeviceFidelity has launched a patent-pending NFC solution that works with any phone equipped with a microSD slot.

In2Pay uses an industry standard dual interface contactless smart card chip that can be loaded with a certified payment application, such as those from Visa or MasterCard, using standard bank card personalisation and card issuing systems so that banks and other service providers can begin offering NFC services to their customers with minimum amendments to their existing infrastructure.

DeviceFidelity has also developed a system for In2Pay to be distributed to cardholders in a way that makes it very easy to understand and use the technology. Once an In2Pay microSD card has been personalised with a cardholder’s details it can be inserted into one end of a specially designed plastic ‘card’ which can then be attached to a standard bank card mailer.

When the customer receives his new device in the mail, he simply detaches the card from the carrier, removes the NFC microSD device from the card and inserts it into his mobile phone. Software then installs and a prompt appears on the phone’s screen instructing the customer to enter a password on the mobile phone’s keypad. Once that has been done, the customer’s phone is NFC-enabled for whatever applications the bank has chosen to install on the In2Pay device.

For now, In2Pay has been designed to work only with applications that are pre-loaded onto the device during the issuing process. Multiple applications such as a combined bank and transit card or a payments plus access control application are possible, however, and DeviceFidelity will be adding over-the-air provisioning of additional applications during 2010. Once that is available, it will be possible for deployed In2Pay devices to be upgraded with additional applications over-the-air.

“DeviceFidelity has signed evaluation agreements with some of the largest card issuers in the US,” says the company, with volume production for commercial deployments expected in 2010. And, in large volumes, In2Pay is expected to cost only around double the price of a smart card, Deepak Jain, CEO of DeviceFidelity, told NFCW.

“We’re committed to helping the industry transform the mobile phone into a ubiquitous mode of retail payment that is faster, more secure and more convenient,” says Jain. “In2Pay’s open architecture, industry standard smart card chip and compliance with industry processes make it easy for banks, payment networks and wireless carriers to deploy mobile payment programs quickly without special handsets or changes to merchant infrastructures.”

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