China picks N.J. vendor's bank software.

A nationwide, on-line postal banking system will be set up in the People's Republic of China using a high4ech network access system made by Integrated Network Corp., Bridgewater, N.J.

The project, named "Green Card," will let customers of China's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications do on-line banking transactions, such as funds transfers, at local post offices. The post offices will also be clearing houses for credit and debit transactions originating from point of sale terminals.

First use of the system, scheduled this fall, will include participation of more than 300 post offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Dairyun, and in the provinces of Guangdong and Hainan.

Telephone Network

Three Chinese telephone companies - the Beijing Telecommunications Administration, Shanghai Telecommunicalions Administration, and Dairyun Telecommunications Administration - will participate by building a network to let data move quickly from POS terminals to banks or merchants.

Network equipment will be supplied by Jing-Koh Integrated Telecom, a joint venture formed by Beijing Telecom, Integrated Network, and the Kohap Group, one of Korea's 30 largest conglomerates.

By early 1995, the project will be expanded to include 2,300 post offices, and a second expansion will bring in more than 10,000 post offices. A timetable for the second phase has not yet been determined.

Full Linkage Planned

Ultimately, however, all 55,000 post offices in China will be connected.

To provide network capability, post offices will be equipped with a technology called digital data over voice, which transmits voice and digital data simultaneously over a single telephone line.

The technology is used in the United States for processing credit card authorizations. Retailers can use a voice line to process authorizations and to make and receive phone calls. Thus, they need fewer phone lines.

Valerie Rasines, a spokeswoman for Integrated Network, said the technology also yields faster response times: 30 seconds for authorizations on a regular phone line versus five seconds on a DDOV line.

Ambitious Upgrading

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has approved DDOV technology as part of a proposed nationwide debit/credit card authorization system that will initially connect merchants in Beijing to a major credit card service provider.

Adoption of DDOV is part of an ambitious program led by the ministry to upgrade China's telecommunications infrastructure. The agency expects to spend up to $62 billion in the next six years, mainly to improve access connections.

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