Cellphones become mobile banks

QuickDFW
Posted: Mar 29, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. – The technology that may change how America shops looks like a sticker decorated with a swirly logo.

It is a paper-thin transmitter that lets your phone talk to cash registers, subway turnstiles and movie posters – just some of the ways cellphones will become mobile banks if Americans embrace technology demonstrated at the CTIA Wireless 2007 trade show in Orlando.

A consortium of firms led by Nokia and Visa are testing the in-phone transmitters around the world.

Shoppers in Europe can buy items by touching their phones to credit card devices in some stores. Visitors to Orlando can get information by touching their phones to posters around the city.

The transmitters are cheap, standardized descendents of older RFID technology. Any store that can accept payments from RFID products – a list that includes Exxon Mobil and McDonald's – already has everything it needs to let customers pay by cellphone.

One-touch payment may sound like a security nightmare, but the system has advantages over a simple credit card: Users can lock a phone and set it to require PINs on all purchases.

"Consumers can put in about as much security as they need to feel comfortable," Nokia spokeswoman Laurie Armstrong said. "And because the technology used here needs to be within an inch or so of a reader, users are not transmitting private information about their credit card numbers for all the world to read."