The mobile payments provider has announced its intentions to include near field communication.
Cellum, a mobile wallet provider from Europe, has announced that NFC technology is on its way to its services. Currently, its mobile payments services are based on Host Card Emulation technology. However, NFC is becoming increasingly commonplace in this market and a company press release revealed they’re joining in.
The company has successfully applied near field communication technology to services in the past.
According to Zoltán Ács, the Cellum director of research and development, “Until recently, Cellum focused on remote payments, though the company is no stranger to NFC, as it has had a number of successful implementations based on the technology in the past.” That said, Ács pointed out that when they had previously used NFC technology, the market hadn’t been “ready for it.”
Cellum believes the market has since evolved and is ready to adopt NFC technology based solutions.
He explained that by implementing NFC based mobile wallets, it will help to better meet a rising demand for secure, rapid and easy to use payment solutions. Cellum has become an official MasterCard Digital Vendor Partner through the Hungarian support of the launch of MasterCard MasterPass.
Cellum provides banks and telcos with mobile wallet services that are MasterPass enabled. They also provider merchants with integration services that use its platform which is compliant with PCI DDS.
As MasterCard gets itself ready for its upcoming launch of contactless HCE based payments through its MasterPass, Cellum will offer its own partners the same functionality. Cellum COO, Ábel Garamhegyi, explained that the company has been using a white label model that included mobile wallet tech for several years. Garamhegyi went on to state that they have used it to established solid partnerships in Europe right through a good portion of the Asian market. He added that it gives the company pride to be “able to serve the diverse needs of our various clients and markets.”
The introduction of NFC technology will only expand on this capability as they broaden their reach as an official Digital Vendor Partner of MasterCard. This will bring together the one-touch PayPass experience with the online MasterPass convenience, all in a single branded app, said Garamhegyi.
The new Canadian smartphone based option will allow Visa cards to be used without near field communication.
TD Canada Trust, one of the largest Canadian banks, has now launched a mobile payments solution that allows shoppers to use their Visa cards through their smartphones in order to make a purchase, regardless of whether or not the device uses NFC technology.
This not only makes it possible for more device models to be compatible, but it also beats many tech giants to this market.
At the moment, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and other top mobile payments services in the United States have yet to make their way into the Canadian space. This has allowed TD Canada Trust to make its way into this market and build its user base before the competition gets too fierce. Moreover, it has done so without the use of NFC technology, which has become the standard for many of the other popular mobile wallets, but that is not compatible with the majority of smartphones currently used in Canada.
The NFC technology free mobile payments app has now launched for the bank’s customers to use.
The TD Bank app has been updated so users with Android devices running 4.4 and higher will be able to add their TD Canada Trust issued Visa card and proceed to make mobile payments with their smartphones. Even without near field communication, the devices can be tapped against point of sale terminals in order to compete a purchase transaction.
This mobile app has managed to accomplish this goal through the use of Host Card Emulation (HCE), which removes the need for NFC SIM cards. It also meals that virtually any Android device (as long as it is running on 4.4 or newer and as long as it is running on any of the wireless networks within the country) will be compatible.
While this isn’t the first Canadian bank to implement this type option, absent of NFC technology, within its app – as the RBC Wallet for Android was launched several months ago – TD’s updated mobile app does represent a significant addition to the country’s mobile payments selection.
