Reliance Infocomm Deploys Wireless POS Terminal for Credit Card Processing

Reliance Infocomm announced the successful deployment of the first Wireless Point of Sale (POS) terminal in India for processing credit card transactions. The pilot project, with HDFC Bank as the acquiring bank, was commissioned at the Reliance Webworld outlet at Heera Panna, Mumbai on June 9, 2003. This is also India's first IP based POS terminal. The first wireless POS transaction - end to end, including authorisation - took only five seconds. Wireless POS will enable banks to expand the number of merchant outlets accepting credit cards exponentially and speed up penetration of credit card services to smaller towns. 

A POS terminal, the size of a large soapbox, is the equipment used by merchants to process credit card payments at their sales outlets. Till now merchant establishments processed credit card payments by swiping customers' credit card in a slot in the POS terminal, which is traditionally connected to a bank's Network Access Controller (NAC) through a dedicated PSTN connection. The NAC then directs the information contained on the credit card to the bank's data center, through its own network. With the Wireless POS, a transaction will now be directly processed at the bank's data center, by skipping the PSTN connection and the NAC infrastructure. In the pilot project deployed by Reliance Infocomm, the data from the POS was carried wirelessly using Reliance IndiaMobile phone to HDFC Bank's data center using Reliance network. 

Merchant establishments will now be empowered to process credit card payments from any location using Wirelss POS. A merchant can now carry the POS to the customer's doorstep or even to an exhibition or trade fair grounds and accept payment by credit or debit cards. 

Banking institutions will be able to rapidly multiply the number of merchant establishments accepting credit cards. Banks can now also add merchant establishments from remote towns and cities to their network, without additional investments.

Presently, banks are required to set up NAC infrastructure in cities and towns to intermediate between the merchant establishments and their central data centres. The wireless POS designed by Reliance Infocomm does away with this need for NAC infrastructure, enabling banks to offer the POS terminal to any merchant establishment irrespective of the presence of NAC infrastructure in that town or its vicinity. With the rapidly expanding presence of Reliance IndiaMobile service - to cover the entire nation soon - wireless POS could be used by merchants anywhere in India.

The retail customer is also benefited by the convenience, which can bring a slew of new products and services to their doorsteps. For example, the neighborhood grocer may well home deliver a customer's purchases, along with a wireless POS for on-the-spot payment using credit or debit card. Companies can also equip their direct selling agents with wireless POS for processing transactions instantaneously. The first wireless POS at the Reliance Webworld at Heera Panna in Mumbai is now used for processing transactions against purchase of Reliance IndiaMobile connection. In the next few weeks, wireless POS will be activated in other Reliance Webworld outlets as well. The pilot stage will be completed in the next four to six weeks post which, wireless POS will be ready for commercial launch.