Visa Inc. and Intel have struck a strategic agreement to develop mobile commerce services for consumers, the companies announced this week.
Under the agreement, an Intel Atom processor equipped with Near Field Communication technology will work with Visa’s payWave contactless-payment system to enable mobile payments. Both companies plan to develop apps for smartphones and tablets.
"Visa's agreement with Intel paves the way for financial institutions around the globe to offer their accountholders mobile payments and financial services using innovative mobile devices and technologies designed by Intel," John Partridge, Visa president, said in a press release.
In the initial phase of the agreement, Visa has certified Intel's Smartphone Reference Device powered by the Intel’s Z2460 Atom processor, a small chip for smartphones, for use with Visa payWave.
The Intel unit includes NFC technology, the short-range, two-way communication standard that enables mobile phones to transmit payment information to payment terminals, and vice versa. This will give manufacturers a means to produce NFC-enabled smartphones.
When used in combination with a Visa-compliant chip, smartphones based on the Intel Smartphone Reference Device handset can connect to Visa's mobile-provisioning service, providing financial institutions and mobile operators the means to download Visa payment account information and the Visa payWave application "over the air" to a secure chip on an NFC-equipped smartphone.
A trusted-services management platform, such as Giesecke & Devrient's, can enable the connection to Visa's mobile-provisioning service.
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