M-Commerce: Bank of Montreal deploys PayPass tags "for mobile"
The Bank of Montreal, Canada, isn’t waiting around for mobile operators. Oh no. They’ve taken matters into their own hands and have now deployed PayPass technology for their customers.
70% of Canadians reportedly own mobile phones which is why the bank reckons the time is right. Here’s a bit of detail from Moneyville.ca:
Bank of Montreal customers can now make payments simply by waving their mobile phone in front of a PayPass reader, the bank announced Tuesday.
The bank, which already has 7 million PayPass credit card holders, says the same service is available by simply attaching a PayPass sticker to your mobile phone
What’s interesting about this technology is that, on the face of it, it’s “Pay by Mobile”.
In fact it’s nothing of the sort. It’s pay-by-sticker. Or ‘tag’ as they’re known in the industry. If you sign-up with Bank of Montreal, they’ll send you a physical credit card plus the option of a PayPass sticker.
This RFID-style sticker can be put on anything. Obviously, your mobile phone is a really sensible, accesible possibility. But you could theoretically put the sticker on your passport, driver’s license, wallet, whatever.
The sticker can — theoretically — be removed and re-applied without losing it’s grip. That I would like to see.
It’s a quick and simple solution though — I really do like the concept of mobile-enabling millions of folk quickly and simply without having to deal with the actual physical device infrastructure at the moment. It makes a heck of a lot of sense. I’d use it. I think you would too, right? If your credit card company sent you out a ‘tag’ or sticker? Why not!
Now then want to see what one of these tags/stickers look like? Here’s a photo of a rival deployment (Zoompass):
(Thanks to Krystal for pointing this one out!)
