Radio Frequency Technology

On Track Innovations Ltd. and Atmel Corp. announced today they have received the first order for microprocessors in “commercial quantity” for MasterCard International's PayPass contactless payment program. OTI said it also expects orders for card readers to support rollouts of PayPass cards by issuers later this year. The two companies …

Card transactions based on radio-frequency technology got a major boost today with the rollout of MasterCard International's PayPass system to some 715 McDonald's Corp. restaurants in New York, Dallas, and Orlando, Fla. The stores will go live with PayPass later this year, MasterCard says, and an undisclosed number of further …

Arthur Blank & Co. Inc., a Boston-based maker of plastic payment and loyalty cards, is getting into the market for cards equipped with radio-frequency-identification technology, with ambitions particularly for cards supporting loyalty programs and payments in the quick-service retail market. “We as a company are very bullish [on RFID],” says …

The first U.S. parking meters equipped to process online authorizations for credit cards have gone live in Seattle. Moorestown, N.J.-based Parkeon Inc. has shipped the first 80 of its so-called pay-and-display parking terminals, which run wireless credit card transactions, for street parking in Seattle. Parkeon's contract calls for it to …

A payment system based on toll-road transponders in Dallas will expand later this year beyond the five McDonald's restaurants that have been part of the radio-frequency identification (RFID) pilot since its inception two years ago. Hummelstown, Pa.-based TransCore, which installs RFID-based toll-road systems around the world, says it will add …

American Express Co. this Friday will begin adding more merchants in lower Manhattan in its test of radio-wave technology for payment transactions. Over the next several weeks, three quick-service restaurants near the card company's headquarters will begin accepting the card company's experimental ExpressPay RIFD keyfobs, which communicate with conventional card …

Executives who are counting on loyalty applications to help justify new transaction technologies like smart cards and radio-frequency ID devices may have to reconsider their strategies in light of recent developments, according to an expert in electronic loyalty programs. Speaking at Thomson Media's CardTech SecurTech conference and exhibition this week …

Target Corp.'s decision several weeks ago to discontinue its chip-based electronic loyalty program has confirmed for Visa USA that U.S. consumers are not likely to embrace new transaction technologies any time soon, whether tied to loyalty programs or not. Indeed, for the foreseeable future, the bank card network is shifting …

Although the decision by fast-food king McDonald's Corp. to shut down its test of ExxonMobil Corp.'s Speedpass contactless payment product seems to be a setback for the technology, not all observers agree. Indeed, some are convinced transactions based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) still have a bright future at high-throughput locations–maybe …

MasterCard announced today its test of contactless chip cards in Orlando, Fla., was encouraging enough for the card company to roll it out to all members as a feature on MasterCard credit, debit, and stored-value cards. The company expects the expansion to begin next summer with the addition of new …