Credit Card Companies Start Trial Service of Infrared Settlement Using I-Mode
April 14, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Visa International, Nippon Shinpan Co, Ltd, Aeon Credit Service Co, Ltd, OMC Card Inc and NTT DoCoMo Inc announced that they have agreed to commercialize credit card settlements using mobile phones, and that they will start a trial service soon.
Visa and Nippon Shinpan will start the trial service in June in Tokyo, and Aeon Credit and OMC Card will join them to commercialize the infrared settlement service.
The mobile phones designated for the trial service are NTT DoCoMo's i-mode-supporting 504i series and 504iS series that have the infrared communication function to download Java applications.
For the trial starting in June, 3,000 Nippon Shinpan Visa card members will be recruited as monitors, and about 500 member shops will be equipped with infrared receivers. The monitors download the Java application for settlement containing their credit card information to their mobile phones.
They run the Java application at shop fronts to establish infrared communication between their mobile phones and the card readers in the shops. Aeon Credit and OMC Card will join the two companies in the trial to increase the number of monitors and member shops.
The payment method to be used for the trial is based on Visa Infrared Financial Messaging for proximity communication payment. In the trial, Visa will test methods of communication and payment as well as their operability from users' points of view to establish compatibility with infrared settlement methods worldwide.
Related link:
NTT DoCoMo's press release
(Yasukazu Sugiyama, Staff Editor, Nikkei Communications) |
