Netclearance, providers of the world’s biggest network of smart Bluetooth payment terminals, today unveils the world’s first commercially available Bluetooth 5 payment beacon.
mBeaconSAM comes in a mini SIM-card sized smart card that fits into existing card reader terminals and will enable them for IoT payments transactions.
The device brings three key benefits to merchants and financial institutions:
1. Upgrades existing payment terminals by adding IoT features. The device allows terminals to accept payments from mobile-wallets in apps. It functions outside of NFC technology used by Apple, Samsung and Google wallets
2. Adds proximity marketing capabilities. It acts as a beacon which brings all the benefits of in-store proximity marketing with Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone-compatible technology
3. The technology is future-proof. Being the first commercial Bluetooth 5 payment beacon with a built-in secure element, it offers bank-grade security with the additional capability of over-the-air firmware upgrades. Bluetooth 5 offers better range, lower power and faster speeds, but it is fully backwards compatible with previous generations
mBeaconSAM is designed to meet the growing demand from merchants and financial institutions looking for alternative revenue streams from API-based mobile payments that use open wallets, outside of existing walled gardens. This democratisation of mobile wallets means that any app can include a wallet which could be used for any payment. This is in line with the upcoming Payment Services Directive, PSD2, which looks to create an equal playing field for payment service providers.
mBeaconSAM upgrades existing payment terminals to accept payments from smartphones or wearable devices using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. It is not limited by existing card-based NFC technology, enabling payments to be quickly made on iOS, Android and other Bluetooth devices.
Jonathan Duffy, EMEA executive director at Netclearance says “Merchants are using tens of millions of payment terminals around the world but the vast majority of these terminals are limited to card-based NFC technology that only works with the closed mobile wallets from Apple, Google and Samsung. mBeaconSAM has been developed to fill a void in the mobile payments and engagement infrastructure. It enables open app-based payments using Bluetooth.
“Mobile payments are both attractive and safe for consumers and have the power to revolutionise the purchasing experience. For merchants and financial institutions, it potentially opens up new streams of revenue.
“It’s really exciting to bring the first Bluetooth 5 payment and proximity marketing beacon to market, and adoption of the latest technology will ensure mBeaconSAM is supported for years to come.”
Based on appearance, the smart card looks and feels like a mini-SIM card. However, under the hood, the smart card contains a high-speed processor, crypto-engine, secure memory and BLE 5.0 capabilities that interface with the terminals readers via the standard PSAM interface. It performs a variety of functions including access control, mobile payments acceptance, mobile proximity marketing, workforce management and secure customer identity verification.
mBeaconSAM joins the Netclearance’s leading portfolio of BLE based payment terminals, unattended payment and mobile ticketing solutions widely used in Scandinavia and other regions. All Netclearance solutions utilise low-power wireless technology and feature open APIs, mobile SDKs, and advanced analytics capabilities.