Bickering Blocks US Mobile Phone Payments 267
theodp writes "Imagine a technology that lets you pay for products just by waving your cellphone over a reader. You wouldn't have to if you lived in Japan, where people have been using it for the last five years to pay for everything from train tickets to groceries to candy in vending machines. While nearly everyone who's tried it has liked this form of payment, consumers in the United States won't be able to wave-and-pay anytime soon: The companies that must work together to give the technology to the masses can't agree on how to split the resulting revenue."
Re:Oyster cards! (Score:5, Informative)
Come to think of it, Chaum's electronic money (digital cash), especially the off-line anonymous variants, would be very well suited to the kind of mobile payments discussed in the article; and such a solution would preserve all the important properties of "ordinary" cash.
Re:Oyster cards! (Score:3, Informative)
Expect an Oyster card (London transport card) integrated into a mobile phone in the next couple of years (I read that somewhere, I think it was official).
There's also the Barclay's credit card, RFID credit card (no need to enter a PIN for transactions under £10) and Oyster card (all three).
http://www.barclays.co.uk/credit-cards/search/index.htm [barclays.co.uk]
Re:Cash! (Score:5, Informative)
Those restrictions are quite legal in the UK. The shopkeeper isn't under any obligation to sell you anything, refusing £50 notes is common and legal (and as a side-effect, if you want £50 notes for some reason you'll need to ask at the bank when you make a withdrawl).
A debtor is always allowed to pay in cash (except you can only use up to £2 worth of 1p or 2p coins, and £5-ish of 5/10/20/50p coins, no limit for £1 or £2 coins). But there's no debt when you're buying something from a store.
Re:Cash! (Score:4, Informative)
While there are obvious exceptions (restaurants or non pre-pay gas come to mind) and there may be territories where laws handle this differently, in a large number of cases where there is no existing debt until payment has been agreed, shops are free to impose any sort of restriction they like.
Re:Another feature I don't need (Score:3, Informative)
theft and loss vs. security vs. convenience (Score:2, Informative)
You're not eager to introduce a payment option that has less overhead costs than physical money?
The problem is overloading functions on one device / card.
If I lose my mobile now, it's going to painful and annoying to get it replaced. If I lose it and it has cash deposited on it, then it's just more of a loss.
If I'm being mugged (or pick pocketed), then all I'm askied for now is my wallet. I don't want to have to lose my mobile as well (which I could otherwise use to call for help, a taxi, or the police).
It's the same idea with having driver's licenses or other cards that can hold monetary value (which I think a few US states have). If I have my cash stolen, no big deal, I don't carry a lot; if I have my debit card stolen, it's not too bad as they need to know my PIN, and I have it limited to how much I can withdrawal or purchase on it; with credit cards, I can deny payment.
When all of those functions are on one or two objects (cards or a mobile), then I'm really SOL if I lose it or have it stolen.
Overloading is nice for convenience, not so nice for security.
Comparison with Japan? What Revenue (Score:1, Informative)
Ok, they seem to be missing an important fact. When you use Mobile Suica, it's the same as when you use Normal Suica cards, except instead of charging by putting cash in a machine, you charge from a menu on your phone which takes the money from your bank account or credit card. The bank doesn't charge any fee, and neither does the credit card company (unless you carry a balance). If you charge 2000 yen, that's what you pay, and that's what goes on the card - meaning Japan rail doesn't take a cut either. The phone company has nothing whatsoever to do with it, it's a hardware feature of the phone. The phone can be *off* and the IC chip still works, just like the cards (which have no batteries). The only thing it needs the rest of the phone for is when you charge it occasionally. The article mentions the "virtual credit card"? No, it's pre-paid, that's why it can authorize instantly.
The point is, there's no need to squabble over the revenue from it, because there is none to be made directly from it. It saves Japan Rail from dealing with paper tickets, and saves them money that way. It saves stores from having to deal with as much cash, and gets more customers through in less time, and so helps them that way. It saves consumers time and lets me go to the ATM less often.
Suica isn't the only card, but all of the cards use the same hardware standard (Sony Felica - which, unlike the cards they want to use in the us - hasn't been hacked), so the readers are compatible. The cards differ at the application level for storing other things besides money. Instead of bickering about it, the US should try something different - adopt a standard already in use. Then when it does become popular in the US, travelers won't have to deal with two different systems in the US and Japan.