McDonald’s Gets Softcard

McDonald’s Gets Softcard

Posted by Sam Churchill on October 29th, 2014

Softcard (formerly Isis), a mobile payment system that competes with Apple Pay and Google Wallet, announced today that it is accepted at more than 14,000 McDonald’s locations around the country beginning today. Smartphone owners can make NFC-based mobile payments at the register and the drive-thru at all McDonald’s restaurants. McDonald’s will also accept Apple Pay.

Last month, Subway also announced a partnership with Softcard to support mobile payments.
Softcard is free to download and is compatible with more than 80 Android handsets sold by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. Softcard combines payments, offers and loyalty in one app. Softcard uses the EMV Contactless specification and SmartTap technology to enable payments, offers and loyalty redemption through one tap.

Apple Pay saw more than one million card activations within 72 hours of launch, reports NFC World, and is already the leading NFC payments player in the US, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook outlined future growth plans for the service at the WS Journal D Live conference this week, including a potential partnership with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.
US pharmacy chains Rite Aid and CVS plan to launch their own CurrentC mobile payment service in 2015, and have stopped accepting NFC payments, blocking mobile payments services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Softcard.
Unfortunately, CurrentC is now warning people that hackers have already swiped some of the beta tester’s email addresses.
Mobile proximity payments have to date proven lacklustre despite the hundreds of millions spent on developing these platforms. But loyalty rewards and benefits of the digital wallet is now seen by many as potentially the killer app that will help to finally ignite the long simmering mobile proximity payment market.

Ovum’s research indicates that 53% of consumers globally report they’ve either used or are interested in redeeming offers and coupons with their handsets, while 44% have used or are interested using their mobile device to pay for things in store and restaurants, explains Gilles Ubaghs, Senior Analyst, Financial Services Technology at Ovum.

source : dailywireless.org

AT&T Verizon Work Toward VoLTE Interoperability

AT&T & Verizon Work Toward VoLTE Interoperability

Posted by Sam Churchill on November 4th, 2014

Verizon and AT&T are working to enable Voice over LTE interoperability, reports Fierce Wireless. The two carriers said they are going to enable VoLTE-to-VoLTE connections in 2015. Voice over LTE (VoLTE) was devised to standardise a method for transferring voice over LTE data networks.
According to a Verizon blog post, engineers from both companies will start with lab testing and then move to field trials next year. Verizon said customers will have a seamless experience making VoLTE HD Voice calls between the two networks as well as other Rich Communications Services (RCS) such as video calls, rich messaging and more.
T-Mobile, meanwhile, has VoLTE available in more than a dozen cities (with the proper phone), and has been testing interoperability, with interop agreements with VerizonWireless and Sprint since May, notes John Legere.
AT&T introduced VoLTE services in its initial markets earlier this year, and will continue to expand to more devices and more markets across the United States. “Interoperability of VoLTE between wireless carriers is crucial to a positive customer experience,” said Krish Prabhu, president, AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer, AT&T.
Currently, to experience Verizon’s VoLTE service both parties on a call need to be using a VoLTE-enabled Verizon smartphone. AT&T’s VoLTE-enabled HD Voice service lets customers only make HD Voice calls with other AT&T customers using AT&T HD Voice-capable devices within AT&T HD Voice coverage areas.
An additional requirement for VoLTE enabled networks is to have a means to handing back to circuit switched legacy networks in a seamless manner, while only having one transmitting radio in the handset to preserve battery life. A system known as Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) is required for this. Handover from LTE to the legacy network is required when the user moves out of the LTE coverage area.
The benefit to wireless operators is more-efficient use of their network resources, explains C/Net’s Maggie Reardon. VoLTE benefits for consumers include faster call setup times (twice as fast as a non-VoLTE call setup), LTE data speeds while you are on a call, and HD Voice service with greater call quality.

source : dailywireless.org