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MasterCard Canada, Citi Cards Canada and Bell Mobility have completed the first Near Field Communications (NFC) trial of Mobile PayPass, a contactless payment product linked to mobile phones. The trial, the first to use Bell Mobility's wireless network for payments, ran from August 2008 to December 2008 and included 75 employees of MasterCard, Citi and Bell who used Samsung mobile phones equipped with MasterCard's PayPass contactless technology, Scott Lapstra, vice president of market development, tells CardLine. The trial took place at Bell Mobility's Creekbank office in Ontario. The average transaction amount was just under $20, according to MasterCard. Employees in the pilot also could use their PayPass-equipped phones at any other location that accepts PayPass in Toronto, which Lapstra says has the highest concentration of PayPass terminals of any market. Lapstra did not disclose the number of merchants, but MasterCard says more than 141,000 merchant locations worldwide accept PayPass. Lapstra did not disclose the future of the project but said the commercialization of NFC-enabled phones is key to driving demand in the market. "We will continue to work with Bell and we expect to be able to bring this product to market when phones are more broadly available," he says. "Telcos and phone manufacturers need to place a sizable order to move the market."
