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Atlanta Spirit, Chase, Cingular, Nokia, NXP, Visa USA and ViVOtech Excited by Results of Near Field Communications trial, Citing This Is "just the beginning"
ATLANTA, Sep 06, 2006 - A group of industry-leading companies today announced the completion of the first North American Near Field Communication (NFC) trial for mobile phones, including contactless payments and content downloads at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
During the trial, which launched in Dec. 2005, 150 Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks season ticket holders with both a Chase-issued Visa credit account and a Cingular Wireless account made payments at contactless readers supplied by ViVOtech at concession stands throughout the arena. Additionally, fans downloaded content to their Nokia 3220 mobile phones equipped with NXP's NFC semiconductor chips, including ring tones, wallpapers, screensavers and video clips of favorite players.
Following the completion of the trial, pilot partners conducted focus groups to capture the participants' experience and gain feedback to inform future trials and product development, as well as consumer adoption of mobile applications. Key findings include: - Trial participants overwhelmingly embraced the technology and expressed that the mobile device and applications significantly improved their arena experience.
- Data usage increased during game days; trial participants used their NFC-enabled mobile device more frequently to search for and purchase digital content
Participants indicated that they would like to use their mobile devices for payment at a variety of merchant locations, for any purchase size, and see value in accessing multiple payment accounts on their mobile devices in the future. - Trial participants also expressed interest in having multiple applications on a single mobile device, including transit, loyalty and digital content applications.
"The pilot in Atlanta exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the value mobile payment and content can deliver to a sports and entertainment venue," said David Lee, vice president of Business Development for the Atlanta Spirit, parent company of the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena. "The pilot partners feel this is just the beginning of what we can deliver to our fans and customers, and we are all committed to exploring additional options for bringing NFC technology to the mass market."
The contactless technology provided a faster and simpler payment option at concession stands, allowing season ticket holders to get out of the lines and back to the game more quickly. According to Visa research, purchases made using contactless technology are up to 25 percent faster than those made with cash and trial participants enjoyed the speed and convenience of not having to sign for their purchases under $25.
The trial demonstrated the importance of the evolving partnerships between financial services and wireless technology companies to deliver advanced mobile services to consumers. It was the first large-scale test of next-generation mobile phone applications in North America, and is the result of a collaboration between Chase , Cingular Wireless, Nokia, NXP, Visa USA and ViVOtech, along with Atlanta Spirit, LLC, parent company of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.
About Atlanta Spirit:
Atlanta Spirit, LLC, is the parent company of the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.
About Chase:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.3 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. The company has more than 100 million credit cards issued. Under the JPMorgan, Chase and Bank One brands, the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients. Information about the firm is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
About Cingular Wireless:
Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 57.3 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corporation , has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation - the ALLOVER(TM) network - and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(R), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at www.cingular.com. About Nokia:
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.
About NXP:
NXP is a top 10 semiconductor company founded by Philips more than 50 years ago. Headquartered in Europe, the company has 37,000 employees working in 20 countries across the world. NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in mobile phones, personal media players, TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices. News from NXP is located at www.NXP.com. About Visa USA:
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs. Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payment system - Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 13,420 Member financial institutions, more than 510 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United States. Last year, financial institutions relied on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $2 trillion in transactions with unparalleled reliability.
Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.
About ViVOtech:
ViVOtech ( www.vivotech.com) is the market leader in contactless/NFC payment software, transaction management systems, and readers. These innovative solutions allow consumers to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit cards, debit cards, key fobs, and NFC-enabled mobile phones. ViVOtech's products are used by some of the most prominent retailers in the United States. Currently, with more than 180,000 units in 18 countries, ViVOtech's products are in use at movie theaters, fast food restaurants (QSR), casual dining establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, buses, taxicabs and vending machine locations, enabling a wide variety of businesses to accept contactless/NFC payments. In 2005, ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost & Sullivan technology award for its role in transforming the contactless payment industry, as well as winning the first annual ETA Technology Innovation Award. For the field pilot, ViVOtech provided payment software applications for NFC mobile phones, and has enabled over 150 POS terminals at Philips Arena with its contactless readers. |
