First Data: Embrace of SD Cards Won’t Weaken Sticker Commitment

First Data Corp., which for the past couple of years has been pushing its Go Tag contactless-sticker technology, announced on Tuesday it will promote a new contactless technology for mobile phones based on Secure Digital memory cards. But the massive Atlanta-based processor says the move will have no impact on its Go Tag initiative, which relies on small, flexible tags embedded with chip-and-antenna inlays that can affix to handsets and link via radio waves to point-of-sale readers to process transactions. The micro SD cards will come from Tyfone Inc., a Portland, Ore.-based mobile-payments vendor that has been working on the technology for some time as part of an overall strategy to shift mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology to a portable medium that can be supplied by banks or merchants to customers independent of mobile carrier involvement (Digital Transactions News, Sept. 23, 2009). NFC enables two-way, interactive links between handsets and POS devices and also allows users to manage electronic wallets using their phones' built-in intelligence. The micro SD cards, which can fit into the slots found in more than 60% of mobile- phone shipments, bypass the need for NFC to be tied to a handset's SIM card or other medium controlled by mobile carriers. A standoff over revenue share and other issues between carriers on the one hand and banks and card networks on the other has slowed NFC development for payments, confining most projects to the pilot stage. But a First Data spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News that the Tyfone technology, which will become commercially available some time in the second half of this year, will not replace Go Tags. “The announcement with Tyfone does not dilute or diminish our plans to support contactless stickers,” she says via e-mail. “First Data would support both contactless stickers and micro SD form factors in tandem, further demonstrating our commitment to advancing mobile commerce initiatives across a variety of initiatives.” The new micro SD card, which Tyfone calls Sidetap, will have e-wallet capabilities, allowing handset users to store financial data as well as personal identification information, according to the announcement. Card data can be stored for both general-purpose and closed-loop programs, such as those often sponsored by specific merchants. It will also feature so-called over-the-air (OTA) capabilities, allowing financial institutions or other organizations to renew or add financial data by transmitting them to the phone. Indeed, First Data's offering will include both the SD cards as well as the platform to manage OTA downloads. The cards will also be able to function as ordinary memory cards, allowing consumers to store photos or other content without having to switch out to another card. “We chose Tyfone's SideTap memory card because it best serves the needs of consumers who want to use contactless payment options with over-the-air access but still want to retain the memory-card functionality of their micro SD card,” said Dom Morea, division manager of mobile commerce solutions at First Data, in a statement. Security in the product is provided by an embedded chip from NXP Semiconductors.