MobilityWire

First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing today announced an agreement with
Tyfone, a provider of mobile contactless payment and secure mobility solutions. The collaboration will provide SideTap™ micro secure digital (MicroSD) memory cards equipped with Tyfone’s patented technologies that will transform most mobile phones with a memory slot into a mobile contactless payment device.

Unlike solutions that are tied to specific merchants or financial institutions, the MicroSD card powered by Tyfone technology lets the card work like an actual mobile “wallet.” The card can contain financial information and secure identification from multiple sources, such as specific retailers or financial institutions in both open loop and closed loop scenarios.

SideTap card’s onboard controller that manages over-the-air (OTA) access in conjunction with the u4ia® (pronounced euphoria) mobility platform is fully expandable, allowing consumers to add new payment and identity options, creating a true mobile wallet that is as flexible as the card provider would like it to be. Through this agreement, First Data will provide merchants and financial institutions with Tyfone’s patented SideTap secure memory card and u4ia mobility platform for OTA life cycle management.

The SideTap card can retain memory card functions, so consumers can continue to utilize the card as they normally would, to store photos, videos, music, documents, or other files. An embedded SmartMX security chip from NXP Semiconductors safeguards all transactions operated on the MicroSD card.

“The move to contactless payments is gaining traction and First Data continues to play a pivotal role in the development of this evolving technology. Consumers have a strong preference for such technology and merchants are using contactless payments to reduce waiting times, increase customer loyalty, and boost sales,” said Dom Morea, First Data division manager of Mobile Commerce Solutions. “First Data chose Tyfone’s SideTap Memory Card because it best serves the needs of consumers who want to use contactless payment options with over the air access, but still want to retain the memory card functionality of their MicroSD card. We are excited to partner with Tyfone and bring this technology to consumers in the second half of 2010.”

Over the next two to three years, analysts forecast contactless payment transactions via MicroSD technology will be used by more than 20 million people in North America alone, at thousands of contactless payment terminals already in place. According to a Sept. 2009 forecast by Juniper Research, near-field communications (NFC) contactless payment global gross transaction value is expected to exceed $30 billion by 2012.

“With over 60 percent of the mobile phones being sold today with memory slots, memory cards are widely used in the mobile ecosystem, making it an ideal form factor for issuers to add contactless payment. However, consumers are unlikely to swap between memory card for payment and storage uses in their phones. So our SideTap cards integrate storage and contactless payments in the same memory card to enhance consumer’s experience,” said Dr. Siva Narendra, chief technology officer at Tyfone. “Mobile phone users are familiar with memory cards, many of which are bought directly from their mobile network operators. Tyfone in collaboration with First Data and NXP provides a win-win-win for the consumer, issuer, and the mobile network operator.”

“The promise of MicroSD card-powered technology to drive contactless payments is profound, with the ability to very quickly enable mobile transactions for businesses and their customers,” said Henri Ardevol, general manager, Secure Transactions at NXP. “Our partnership with First Data and Tyfone exhibits the kind of innovative technology that will bring significant benefits for consumers as well as the key stakeholders such as banks, transportation companies, mobile network operators and merchants.”

About Tyfone
Tyfone is a neutral infrastructure enabler for cloud computing based mobile services. Tyfone enables the next wave of secure-element-neutral mobile apps that are secure enough to store your driver’s license, health records, passport, debit, pre-paid and credit cards.

Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ card is the world’s first patented memory card-based mobile payments solution with integrated secure element OTA controller and miniature contactless coil for mobile NFC payments. The technology operates in any standard memory card slot and is rapidly gaining market acceptance as a single-strategy approach to mobile contactless payments for any mobile phone. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for secure mobile apps to many of the world’s leading organizations, visit www.tyfone.com.

About NXP
NXP Semiconductors provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions that leverage its leading RF, Analog, Power, Digital Processing and manufacturing expertise. These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, industrial, consumer, lighting, medical, computing and identification applications. Headquartered in Europe, the company has about 28,000 employees working in more than 25 countries and posted sales of USD 3.8 billion in 2009. News from NXP is located at www.nxp.com.

About First Data
First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a provider of secure mobility solutions, today announced that its SideTap™ micro secure digital (MicroSD) memory card versions are completed and will be available via partners to consumers in the second half of 2010. MicroSD memory cards enabled by Tyfone’s patented SideTap contactless payment technology with integrated 13.56MHz coil can be used by hundreds of millions of mobile phones at thousands of existing contactless payment terminals worldwide. These cards will work in phones with MicroSD slot on any side of the phone – top, left, right, bottom or back.

Tyfone’s enabling patent portfolio includes US patent 7,581,678 filed February 22, 2005 for “Electronic Transaction Cards”, issued September 1, 2009, and other patents pending.

The SideTap memory card technology is the world’s first to fully integrate near-field communications (NFC) contactless card payment capabilities with a popular and commonly used mobile phone accessory, a MicroSD memory card. SideTap memory cards enable MIFARE as well as any Global Platform compliant payment applet. The SideTap MicroSD card contains an onboard controller that manages over-the-air (OTA) capabilities allowing consumers to add multiple payment and identification options, creating a true mobile wallet. Because the SideTap MicroSD card also retains all its memory card functions, consumers can also use them to store documents, photos, videos, music or other files.

“Unlike solutions tied to specific retailers or financial institutions, the SideTap memory card works like an actual wallet that contains financial information from multiple sources, either specific retailers or financial institutions in both open loop and closed loop scenarios, said Tom Spitzer, Tyfone’s chief executive officer. “We are very excited to be launching the SideTap MicroSD card. It’s a significant milestone for the company and for the industry.” The SideTap MicroSD card is a fully integrated solution with a built-in contactless coil, without loss of traditional memory card functions.

In addition to the SideTap memory card, a SideTap lite MicroSD card with OTA wallet functions but no storage memory is available for partners. A SideTap ultralite MicroSD card is also available without storage memory or OTA wallet capabilities, for a single-payment provider scenario, much like a contactless plastic card or sticker from a single issuer. SideTap and SideTap lite cards are supported by Tyfone’s u4ia® (pronounced euphoria) mobility platform. The platform transforms the MicroSD memory card into a mobile wallet capable of performing OTA life cycle management and contactless transactions at NFC equipped point-of-sale readers. Tyfone’s u4ia mobility platform, that will be used by Trusted Service Manager (TSM) partners, is necessary for OTA services only and not for payment transaction processing.

Using SideTap memory cards, consumers purchase goods simply by tapping their mobile device at a point of sale reader. The read distance ranges from 1 to 3 cm depending on the reader and transaction speeds are identical to contactless plastic cards.

“If you are like most people, inside your wallet you have a few credit/debit/ID cards, perhaps gift/prepaid cards, money and miscellaneous items like coupons,” said Dr. Siva Narendra, chief technology officer at Tyfone. “With Tyfone’s u4ia platform and our SideTap MicroSD card a consumer can have multiple payment identities with OTA access and won’t be limited to where they can use their mobile phone to make payments and other secure transactions. Not to mention the ability to store contents including coupons, catalogs, and music, some of which can be preloaded by our partners. More important, the Tyfone SideTap MicroSD cards are equipped to work in virtually any mobile phone with a memory card slot. We can now kick start NFC.”

One of the most often cited obstacles for NFC payment models is the lack of availability of NFC-enabled handsets. By contrast, Tyfone’s patented technology enables a more rapid deployment of NFC capabilities by simply inserting the SideTap MicroSD card into commonly available memory card slots, requiring no other changes to consumers’ phones. According to a September 2009 forecast by Strategy Analytics approximately 900+ million phones will be enabled with memory card slots by 2013. Many handset manufacturers already report that memory cards are the most purchased accessory for mobile phones today.

“To address a marketplace that today has hundreds of millions of mobile phones that can use Tyfone’s SideTap MicroSD cards, it was important to ensure the ability to scale,” said Prabhakar Tadepalli, Tyfone’s managing director. “SideTap memory cards can work across all mobile operating systems and all wireless operators. We have also built it to scale quickly and have a team ready to assist our partners in that effort.”

Tyfone’s SideTap SD memory cards have undergone extensive and successful trials with multiple partners over the last 18 months. In the coming months, consumers will be able to purchase SideTap MicroSD memory cards and use them at major retailers. Tyfone will soon announce partnerships that will make the first wave of this important payment technology available for consumers, financial institutions and retailers.

About Tyfone:
Tyfone is a neutral infrastructure enabler for cloud computing based mobile services. Tyfone enables the next wave of secure-element-neutral mobile apps that are secure enough to store your Driver’s License, Health Records, Passport, Debit, Pre-paid and Credit Cards.

Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ card is the world’s first patented memory card-based mobile payments solution with integrated secure element, OTA controller and miniature contactless coil for mobile NFC payments. The technology operates in any standard memory card slot and is rapidly gaining market acceptance as a single-strategy approach to mobile contactless payments for any mobile phone. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for secure mobile apps to many of the world’s leading organizations, visit www.tyfone.com.

Some names and brands mentioned may be claimed as the property of others. u4ia, Tyfone, and SideTap are trademarks of Tyfone, Inc.

Mobile First, Inc. (www.mobilefirst.com), a global leader in mobile billing solutions, today announced availability of Mobile First Mobile Payment processing for developers and providers of online games, social networking applications and virtual currency platforms. Now available in 40 markets around the world, Mobile First Mobile Payment lets these online entertainment merchants provide a highly convenient way for people all around the world to pay for their services. The latest product in Mobile First’s suite of premium SMS solutions, Mobile Payment provides merchants the ability to accept payments from anyone using SMS text messaging services, almost anywhere in the world.

“The global surge in popularity of social network applications, online games and other digital consumption has been met by a growing willingness by users to pay to play,” said Kevin Spector, CEO of Mobile First. “Mobile First is focused on making the payment process simple, secure and reliable for both merchants and consumers. At no cost, Mobile First handles every part of the payment process short of putting our logo on a merchant’s site, breaking down all the barriers to turning on a global mobile payment system.”

Secure, simple and reliable, the Mobile First Mobile Payment solution allows customers of online merchants to shop for myriad online products and services, and complete their purchase by simply entering their mobile phone numbers. Real-time verification is achieved using a security code sent to customers’ mobile phones, reducing the risk of fraud. Payments are immediately processed and customers are credited for their digital purchases.

Built on Mobile First’s proven payment platform that has processed more than $250 million in mobile payments since 2003, Mobile First Mobile Payment eliminates the barriers that come with credit card payments, providing a higher converting alternative payment mechanism, consistently achieving conversion rates ten times that of traditional credit card payment options.

With no setup fee or monthly cost, Mobile First Mobile Payment features:

• Simple implementation and flexible integration
• Full service customer support
• Localized language translation
• Secure transaction processing
• Real-time reporting
• The highest payout rates in the industry
• Ever expanding country support with new markets added every month

To begin using Mobile Payment from Mobile First, merchants simply register by visiting: http://paywith.mobilefirst.com. Once they receive their login credentials and register their products, Mobile First sends HTML code and an easy-to-implement API to activate the Mobile Payment service on the merchant’s website. By simply adding three lines of custom code onto a Web page, merchants are instantly ready to maximize the revenue opportunity of their application with the 1.7 billion potential customers in Mobile First’s supported markets.

Mobile First will be exhibiting at Engage! Expo in New York City on February 16-17. To meet with Mobile First at this event, contact biz@mobilefirst.com, or drop by booth number 26.

For more information about Mobile Payment from Mobile First visit http://paywith.mobilefirst.com.

About Mobile First
Mobile First is a global leader in mobile billing and mobile payment solutions, having processed more than $250 million in secure, reliable SMS payments for merchants and digital content providers all over the world. Founded in 2003, Mobile First is headquartered in the Silicon Valley and has more than 100 employees in offices located in the United States and Hong Kong. For more information visit www.mobilefirst.com.

Vesta Corporation, a global pioneer and leader in electronic payment solutions, today announced the availability of version 5.0 of its industry-leading secure Mobile Payment Platform. The new platform enables wireless operators worldwide to increase subscriber ARPU, accept more payment types and achieve Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance through a managed service that includes a portfolio of new payment services and features.

“Vesta’s new payment platform offers a wide range of benefits to mobile operators,” said Chris Parsons, chief marketing officer at Vesta Corporation. “In addition to facilitating secure transactions, operators can also enjoy significant time to market advantages and a full suite of innovative features. Having processed hundreds of millions of transactions, Vesta has the experience, knowledge and agility to effectively deliver the payment technology desired by mobile operators and their subscribers.”

For operators, the 5.0 version of the Mobile Payment Platform offers a dynamic business reporting portal and Vesta’s token service that provides robust self-care functions and isolates operators from PCI compliance requirements. Enhancements for mobile subscribers include Vesta’s quick code functionality which enables even faster payments through multiple channels; wallet functions supporting multiple users and payment devices; and the integration of social networking applications where subscribers can request, send and receive payment-related gifts.

With the growth of mobile payments, and the increased diversity of new payment channels and methods, Vesta continues to place utmost importance on safeguarding the security and privacy of customer payment information. Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform is fully compliant with the PCI data security standard (PCI DSS) as mandated by the payment card networks, ensuring best practices when handling sensitive card holder information. This compliance relieves the operator from the costs and burdens of maintaining compliance themselves, even through emerging channels like handset applications.

Another key benefit of the Mobile Payment Platform is that it allows operators to increase subscriber ARPU while reducing churn. This is accomplished through Vesta’s patented, industry-leading fraud engine which increases the rate of successful payments, and by analyzing the customer data that flows through the Mobile Payment Platform. Vesta helps mobile operators better understand customer behavior by analyzing payment usage and demographic data, allowing the operator to effectively up sell and cross sell, establish targeted marketing campaigns and optimize their prepaid and postpaid subscriber portfolios.

“As mobile consumers’ payment preferences evolve and they pay via increasingly diverse methods, more and more mobile operators are embracing the flexibility, convenience and security our platform delivers,” continued Parsons. “Vesta’s new Mobile Payment Platform release enables operators to ensure customer needs are met as seamlessly and securely as possible.”

To learn more about Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform 5.0, visit Vesta Corporation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 15 – 18, 2010, or contact Paul Nolan or Daniel Lowther at CCgroup on +44 118 9207650 or email vesta@ccgrouppr.com.

About Vesta Corporation
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with operations in Europe and China, Vesta has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international companies including AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Meteor Mobile Communications, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tele2, Verizon, Vodafone, and Yoigo. For more information, visit www.trustvesta.com.

Tyfone, a global provider of mobile financial services infrastructure and fully-integrated mobile NFC payments/secure transaction capabilities, today announced the company was awarded a second patent for its innovations in smart card-based electronic wallet technology. This newest patent, US 7,581,678 is entitled “Electronic Transaction Card.”

Using time varying magnetic fields, Tyfone’s patented technology enables the use of a memory card as an electronic wallet and/or the ability to use that memory card for the secure transmission of financial information. This groundbreaking technology is used in the company’s u4ia^® (euphoria) Mobile Financial Services platform, which completed successful beta testing in June of this year.

In the growing contactless payment marketplace, Tyfone’s patented technologies and u4ia secure memory card platform enables a Trusted Service Manager (TSM) to bring scale to the ecosystem by enabling existing market deployed handsets to become NFC ready. This leads to significant benefits to consumers and the key stakeholders such as banks, transportation companies, mobile operators and merchants, without change to the current ecosystem and without incurring significant cost to enable it.

Unlike other software only technologies that refer to their application as an electronic wallet, Tyfone’s platform includes a neutral secure element-thereby making it a true electronic container or “wallet.” This solution allows a TSM to securely manage different consumer credit, debit, transportation and pre-paid accounts for use in a wide range of payment and other secure transactions.

A key application for Tyfone’s newly patented technology is using SideTapTM to conduct a contactless payment transaction. Using SideTap consumers purchase goods at point of sale simply by tapping their mobile device at point of sale.

“To Tyfone, this patent is the culmination of tireless work developing a neutral solution not only as a viable implementation of NFC that can be broadly used today, but also as a truly game changing technology,” said Dr. Siva Narendra, chief technology officer at Tyfone. “As was demonstrated when initial testing was completed with the key stakeholders in the NFC value chain, Tyfone’s newly patented technology brings us one step closer to a ubiquitous contactless payment reality. Tyfone’s secure memory card technology is out of the R&D lab, has been tried and tested and is ready for the next stage in evolving the stakeholders’ existing business models into new revenue opportunities.”

“Enabling near field communications without requiring design changes to the handset is the fastest way to proliferate contactless applications”, said Patrick Gauthier, who launched Visa Paywave and is now CEO of SMC Advisors, a management consulting firm focused on emerging payments, mobile and e-commerce businesses. “Tyfone’s technology is critical to jump start NFC by providing a packaging that is familiar to the consumers, delivering a neutral secure element that is appropriate for banks and service providers, and enabling a new class of use cases that can drive revenue for operators.”

About Tyfone:
Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible Mobile Financial Services (MFS) infrastructure that is tailored to meet the evolving needs of mobile network operators, transportation agencies, retailers and financial institutions. With its complete MFS platform and global alliance partners, Tyfone is uniquely qualified to deliver issuer-centric turnkey solutions with fully-integrated contactless payments capabilities. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for MFS technologies to many of the world’s leading organizations, please visit www.tyfone.com.

Tyfone, a global provider of mobile financial services infrastructure and fully-integrated mobile payments capabilities, today announced that OnPoint Community Credit Union, Oregon’s largest credit union with more than $2.8 billion in assets, has selected Tyfone’s u4ia^® platform as the infrastructure behind its mobile banking strategy. OnPoint will leverage Tyfone’s professional services to deploy robust mobile banking services initially, with NFC contactless mobile payment capabilities to follow.

Founded in Portland, Oregon in 1932 by 16 school teachers, OnPoint has grown and evolved into a full-service institution serving close to 200,000 members. In support of its mission to provide unsurpassed member access to services, OnPoint has consistently expanded its reach through new branch openings, online banking and bill payment and growth in its ATM network. Earlier this year, OnPoint made a commitment to further increase accessibility through an aggressive mobile banking strategy.

“We set out to find a proven technology partner offering a full suite of mobile banking capabilities, plus we wanted a flexible, modular architecture and experienced professional services to help us implement our strategy,” said Jim Armstrong, OnPoint’s senior vice president of technology. “Tyfone came through with a comprehensive platform that exceeded our requirements, but their integrated NFC contactless mobile payment capabilities were what really sold us. No other vendor on the market offers both capabilities, and Tyfone’s unique secure memory card technology gives us exceptional flexibility to deliver some very exciting new member services down the road.”

According to the research firm Juniper Research, by the year 2011 there will be over $587 billion in financial transactions handled by mobile financial services around the world.

While the current industry paradigm for implementing mobile payments relies on wireless operators and handset manufacturers to integrate Near-Field Communications (NFC) chips into new handset models, Tyfone’s unique technology overcomes this barrier by integrating the Secure Element (SE), an NFC contactless chip and antenna on standard Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. Using a secure memory card as the SE fosters a better operator – bank cooperation, allowing memory card-enabled phones to become instantly capable of highly secure transactions and contactless payments.

Manufacturers are gearing up for widespread adoption of mobile payments. As of 2009, over 60 percent of phones in the US have memory card slots and close to one billion phones worldwide, thereby Tyfone’s solution makes it simple for customers to adopt and provide organizations the opportunity to brand their own cards.

“OnPoint recognizes that offering their members mobile financial solutions is a critical strategy to build on their preeminent position in the marketplace,” said Thomas Spitzer, Tyfone’s chief executive officer. “Being able to offer everything from secure mobile banking to mobile payments will enable us to partner with them for the long term.”

About Tyfone:
Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible Mobile Financial Services (MFS) infrastructure that is tailored to meet the evolving needs of mobile network operators, transportation agencies, retailers and financial institutions. With its complete MFS platform and global alliance partners, Tyfone is uniquely qualified to deliver issuer-centric turnkey solutions with fully-integrated contactless payments capabilities. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for MFS technologies to many of the world’s leading organizations, please visit www.tyfone.com.

About OnPoint Community Credit Union:
OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 199,000 members and with assets of $2.8 billion. Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union’s membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 10 Oregon counties (Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark). For more information visit www.onpointcu.com or call 800-527-3932.