MasterCard is testing the use of its PayPass contactless chip technology in mobile handsets from Nokia.
A Nokia market trial currently taking place with retailers in the Dallas, Texas area allows consumers to tap or wave their phone when making payments at the checkout.
For the trial, a Nokia phone SmartCover is embedded with a contactless chip and a radio frequency circuit. The chip has been specially programmed with pre-registered MasterCard payment account information and is compliant with the PayPass specification.
When consumers tap or wave their Nokia phones on the specially equipped PayPass readers at the point-of-sale, payment account information is transmitted to the terminal. The transaction is then processed through MasterCard's payment network in the normal way. A system provided by JPMorgan Chase processes the payment account information.
Nokia has also developed a mobile commerce messaging platform for retailers to promote goods and services to consumers using Short Messaging Service (SMS). This functionality will be upgraded to test Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) that delivers video and audio during the latter part of trial.
The Nokia pilot dovetails will MasterCard's ongoing PayPass trial in Orlando. Now in its fourth month, the Orlando trial has 16,000 cardholders and nearly 60 merchant locations participating.