We'd previously noticed that Cingular was
collaborating with Citigroup on some sort of mobile payment system in New York City, though details were pretty slim for the picking at the time; now the carrier has come out with full disclosure on exactly what it is they have up their sleeves. Like its
Atlanta trial last year, the New York program involves Nokia handsets fitted with NFC (near-field communication) guts -- though for the sake of the trial participants, we hope Cingular is offering something a little more up-to-date than the lowly
3220 this time around. Unlike Atlanta, however, Cingular has switched up their financial partner from Chase / Visa to Citi / Mastercard, giving users the ability to use their phone for payment anywhere
Mastercard's PayPass system is accepted. Parties involved expect the trial to last a total of three to six months, at which point we should all have a better perspective on how folks feel about shedding cash by tapping their cellphones against various surfaces. Of course, Japan seems to like it
just fine -- so why not us?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Denny @ Dec 15th 2006 3:52PM
This is really interesting, because Citibank and Mastercard are also currently in a trial with MTA (currently only on the 6 line) to use paypass at subway turnstyles... so an equipped cell phone could be used to pay subway fares! While I personally hate Cingular, I'd definitely use this system if it spread to other carriers (namely T-Mobile).
JX @ Dec 16th 2006 10:21AM
Why couldn't they just use FeliCa?
Dan Entin @ Dec 27th 2006 4:37PM
The phone they are using for the trial is the Nokia 6126.