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Trial Press Release
Industry
Leaders Announce First Large-Scale Near Field Communication Trial
in North America
Atlanta Spirit, Chase, Cingular, Nokia, Philips, Visa USA and
ViVOtech to pilot next-generation mobile phone contactless payment
and content applications
Atlanta,
Dec. 14, 2005 – A group of industry-leading companies
today announced an advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) trial
for mobile phone applications including contactless payments, mobile
content and premium arena services at Philips Arena in Atlanta.
The trial is the first large-scale test of next-generation mobile
phone applications in North America, and is the result of a collaboration
between Chase (NYSE: JPM), Cingular Wireless, Nokia, Philips (NYSE:
PHG, AEX: PHI), Visa USA, and ViVOtech, along with Atlanta Spirit,
LLC, parent company of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, NHL’s
Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena. The trial has been designed
to enable a secure, wireless system that simplifies payment and
services for arena visitors.
During the trial,
Atlanta Thrashers and Hawks season ticket holders with Chase-issued
Visa credit accounts and Cingular Wireless accounts can make contactless
payments at concession stands and access mobile content from numerous
locations throughout the arena. Users can purchase items by simply
holding their Nokia 3220 mobile phones equipped with Philips' NFC
semiconductor chips and ViVOtech software near a secure terminal.
Approximately 150 contactless point of sale (POS) readers have been
deployed by ViVOtech throughout Philips Arena. For mobile content
downloads, Cingular Wireless will be the carrier that enables these
services to take place over its digital wireless network.
"By 2010,
we expect that over 50 percent of all mobile handsets will incorporate
Near Field Communication chips to enable short-range, easy and secure
transactions," said Erik Michielsen, director at market analyst
firm ABI Research. "As a result, consumers will be able to
download content by simply holding their phone close to a poster
or advertising billboard. Users can purchase merchandise, food,
tickets, and have these transactions charged to a credit card using
account information stored in the mobile phone. The NFC implementation
at Philips Arena demonstrates NFC stakeholders, including chipmakers,
card issuers, device makers, mobile carriers, and content providers,
are progressively more willing to collaborate on NFC solution development.
This type of co-development is essential to NFC market growth and
maturation.”
The contactless
transactions will create faster and simpler payments at concession
stands getting fans out of the lines and back to the game. At checkout,
the phone is simply held near a secure reader and the contactless
payment transaction is automatically charged to the user via the
same secure Visa payment network that processes traditional credit
card transactions today.
Fans will also
be able to access and download mobile content such as ringtones,
wallpapers, screensavers, and clips from favorite players and artists
by holding their NFC-enabled phone in front of a poster embedded
with an NFC tag.
Additional
materials relating to this announcement can be found at:
www.nokia-americaspress.com/nfc
About
Atlanta Spirit:
Atlanta Spirit, LLC, is the parent company of the Atlanta Hawks,
Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.
About
Chase:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial
services firm with assets of $1.2 trillion and operations in more
than 50 countries. The company has more than 100 million credit
cards issued. Under the JPMorgan, Chase and Bank One brands, the
firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many
of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and
government clients. Information about the firm is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
About
Cingular:
Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United
States, serving 52.3 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture
between AT&T Inc., formerly SBC Communications Inc., (NYSE:
T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS), has the largest digital
voice and data network in the nation -- the ALLOVER (SM) network
-- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless
carrier. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover
(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly
minutes. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com.
Get Cingular Wireless press releases e-mailed to you automatically.
Sign up at http://www.cingular.com/about/news_releases.
About
Nokia:
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth
and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects
people to each other and the information that matters to them with
easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices
and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides
equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.
About
Royal Philips Electronics:
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI)
is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s
largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion in 2004).
With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare,
lifestyle and technology and 161,100 employees in more than 60 countries,
it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging
and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers,
lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located
at www.semiconductors.philips.com.
About
Visa USA:
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment
system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers
with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their
evolving needs. Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice,
convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders
in the payment system - Members, cardholders and merchants. Through
its 13,420 Member financial institutions, more than 488 million
Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United
States. Last year, U.S.-based financial institutions relied on Visa's
processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions
with unparalleled reliability.
Worldwide, cardholders
in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards,
accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.
Visa offers
a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial
resources -- anytime, anywhere, anyway.
About
ViVOtech:
ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com)
is the market leader in contactless payment software, transaction
management systems and readers. These solutions allow consumers
to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit
cards, debit cards, key fobs, and NFC enabled mobile phones. ViVOtech's
products can be found at some of nation's most prominent retailers.
With more than 130,000 units shipped, ViVOtech's products are being
used by movie theaters, fast food restaurants (QSR), casual dining
establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery
and vending machine locations enabling them to accept contactless/NFC
payments. For the field pilot, ViVOtech provided payment software
applications for NFC mobile phones, and has enabled over 150 POS
terminals at Philips Arena with its contactless readers.
Company
PR Contacts:
Atlanta Spirit: Tom Hughes 404 878 3737: tom.hughes@atlantaspirit.com
Chase: Jessica Iben: 302 282 6150: Jessica.E.Iben@chase.com
Cingular Wireless: Clay Owen: 404 236 6153: clay.owen@cingular.com
Nokia: Laurie Armstrong: 914 368 0423: laurie.armstrong@nokia.com
Philips: Paul Morrison: 408 474 5065: paul.morrison@philips.com
Visa USA: Elvira Swanson: 650 432 8352: elswanso@visa.com
ViVOtech: Mohammed Khan: 415 609 0208: khanm@vivotech.com
Editorial
Contact:
Janice Mackey
Weber Shandwick, for ViVOtech
408-530-8400 ex 2223
jmackey@webershandwick.com
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