INSIDE Contactless and Cubic Demo First Payment-Transit Multi-Application Card at APTA Expo
Prototype Combines Certified Visa payWave and Cubic NextPASS(TM)
Transit Applications
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France--(Business Wire)--
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(R) 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(TM) 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 APTA 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(R) 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 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 www.insidecontactless.com.
Corman Communications, LLC
Patrick Corman, 650-326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
www.cormancom.com
or
INSIDE
Geraldine Sauniere-Miallet, +33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
Marcom Director
gmiallet@insidefr.com
or
Cubic
David Liddle, 858-505-2642
Corporate Communications Director
david.liddle@cubic.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
