Self-Serve Transactions Could Rise with Wireless Transmission

A system that allows card payments to be made at vending machines, laundry machines, kiosks, and unattended business centers is expected to expand rapidly now that the technology provider has partnered with two wireless service providers. Malvern, Pa.-based USA Technologies, which specializes in card-accepting technology for the hospitality industry and at machines and kiosks, already boasts about 2,000 installations nationally. The system allows consumers to swipe credit cards, hotel keycards, or student and employee IDs in a card reader to pay for goods or services. But the transactions usually have to be authorized online using conventional dial-up phone services. With the company's partnership with Sprint and PCS Telemetry Services, a Sprint division, the technology can be made available in machines and kiosks that are not located near phone lines. Additionally, the service will offer faster authorizations and be less expensive for vendors to operate since they will not have the cost of dialing up for each transaction, says Wendy Jenkins, USA Technologies vice president of marketing. “This really expands our potential market,” she says. Whether the authorization is made in a wireless mode or via the dial-up line is transparent to consumers, she says. Most of the payments made using the system are micropayments–vending and laundry machine purchases average about $1–but business center payments average about $4 and some kiosk centers, which sell a wide variety of goods, have average tickets near $10, she says. PCS offers network processing for ATMs and POS terminals over the Sprint cellular network.