INSIDE Contactless and Cubic Demo First Payment-Transit multi-application Card at APTA Expo
Prototype Combines Certified Visa payWave and Cubic NextPASS Transit Applications
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, October 8, 2008–Advancing its commitment to the transit payment system market, INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced it will be demonstrating how the award-winning MicroPass® intelligent contactless payment platform can be applied to transit payment systems at the 2008 APTA International Transit Expo being held October 6-8 at the San Diego (Calif.) Convention Center. Working together with Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB), and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), INSIDE will preview the first multifunction contactless payment card that supports both a type-approved Visa payWave payment application and Cubic’s NextPASS™ fare collection software that is compliant with APTA’s Contactless Fare Media Standard (CFMS).
INSIDE’s proof-of-concept demonstration will show how a single multi-application card based upon its MicroPass 4003 chip platform can be used to conduct contactless payments on both a retail POS terminal and on a Cubic transit fare collection device, and comes at a critical time in the evolution of transit payment systems. Local and regional transit operators will now have the choice of adopting or migrating to transit fare collection solutions based upon both APTA standards, private profiles, and open bank card standards with greater security, functionality and user convenience. This is also providing retailers and financial institutions with an opportunity to partner with transit operators to provide consumers with a single payment card that can also be used to conveniently pay for goods and services located near public transit stations. The combined Visa payWave/NextPASS contactless card is the first example of a technology that could be used to address this emerging demand.
“Our MicroPass intelligent contactless payment platform is specifically designed for high-volume, multi-brand and multi-application capabilities for the kind of next-generation contactless payment and transit applications we are demonstrating at the APTA Expo,” said Charles Walton, executive vice president of payments for INSIDE Contactless. “With strong support from Cubic and Visa, we are clearly demonstrating the feasibility of utilizing the flexible MicroPass platform for APTA-standard compliant transit cards, or multi-application cards with added Visa payWave support to meet the various needs of this evolving market.”
The demonstration can be viewed in the Cubic booth (#2833). In addition to the multi-application Visa payWave/NextPASS contactless card, INSIDE will also be demonstrating fare payments using a traditional MicroPass-based Visa payWave contactless card and a standalone MicroPass-based NextPASS contactless transit card.
Having a resident transit application on a general-purpose payment card enables it to be used like a native transit card. The transit payment system treats it just as a regular transit card, and is able to perform all the normal front-end processing. Because of its intelligence, the transit application on the card is able to cope with highly complex fare schedules based on distance, zones and time, for example, as well as various schemes for enabling riders to transfer between multiple transit lines.
“The MicroPass platform is the undisputed contactless payment market leader, and we have been working with INSIDE for more than two years to create this multi-function, type-approved contactless payment card that supports both contactless payment and NextPASS transit functionality,” said David deKozan, vice president of business development for Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc. “We look forward to continuing our co-development with INSIDE to produce a world-class product suite that is fully certified for deployment with our Nextfare systems and marketing them to transit operators globally.”
“As public transportation’s premier showcase of technology, products and services, Expo is a fitting venue for the demonstration of new multi-application fare system products that are able to take advantage of industry standards such as the ATPA Contactless Fare Media System (CFMS) Standard.” said Martin Schroeder, senior program manager, rail, fare system and energy programs, at APTA. “This is an exciting time for transit agencies as they explore the possibilities for their next-generation fare collection systems.”
Cubic’s Nextfare® Solution Suite is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art fare collection platform consisting of frontend equipment, card handling devices, device-level software and back office processing software designed to work together to enable complete fare policy implementation, asset management, statistical reporting and customer service administration while supporting the widest variety of contactless media options. Nextfare has been designed to support open standards such as ISO 14443, APTA CFMS, and contactless payment.
The MicroPass family of intelligent hardware platforms was designed from the ground up to support multiple contactless applications, including contactless payment card applications, transit fare collection, access control, retail loyalty programs and lightweight ID applications. Based upon a RISC architecture and optimized to the demanding requirements of contactless transactions, each member of the MicroPass product family features low power consumption, fast transaction processing, and overall performance meeting the demands of issuer organizations in the payments, transit, access control and ID industries. MicroPass is the platform of choice for card manufacturers and issuers in the U.S. market with more than 50 million MicroPass-powered bank cards deployed.
About Cubic
Cubic Transportation Systems, one of Cubic Corporation’s major segments, designs and manufactures automated fare collection systems for public mass transit authorities. The corporation’s other major segment, Cubic Defense Applications (CDA), is a world leader in realistic combat training systems, mission support services and defense electronics. For more information about Cubic, see the company’s website at http://www.cubic.com.
About INSIDE Contactless
INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 250 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators, and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 55 families of patents including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul, and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.
For additional information:
Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
http://www.cormancom.com
INSIDE company contact:
Geraldine Sauniere-Miallet
Marcom Director
+33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gmiallet@insidefr.com