by Eunice Sari and Adi Tedjasaputra

Since the introduction of T-Cash or Telkomsel Cash last month, RFID technology has received a high-profile acceptance in Indonesia. With the use of RFID technology in T-Cash, the demand of RFID Cards and Smart Labels in Indonesia is expected to increase sharply in the upcoming years. The RFID adoption path in Indonesia has become clearer in recent years, but the question of how the RFID adoption will influence the way Indonesians live and affect the other industries in Indonesia still remains unanswered.

T-Cash or Telkomsel Cash is a mobile commerce service provided by Telkomsel, one of the mobile telecommunication service operators in Indonesia. The mobile commerce service enables a user to conduct commercial transactions using either mobile phone or RFID card.

During the launch of T-Cash, which was attended by the Minister of State Owned Enterprises - Sofyan A. Djalil, the President Director of Telkomsel – Kiskenda Suriahardja said "The service is launched as an effort to support the mission of Bank Indonesia and provide a non-cash means of payment which is efficient, fast, effective and secure."

Transaction with T-Cash system relies on Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) – a unique number identifying mobile subscriber, which still requires subscriber to verbally tell merchant at the point of sale (POS) to process any transaction. The use of Smart Labels and RFID cards in any transaction is expected to provide automatic identification of MSISDN by merchant terminals in the near future.

At this stage, the established mobile commerce ecosystem includes Telkomsel as Integrator and also Service Provider; Bank Indonesia as regulator; Indomaret and Modern Foto as Merchants; Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Mandiri as the Financial Service Providers; Department of National Education as academic content provider; and Finnet as switching provider.

Eunice Sari is an ICT Consultant and Researcher with various affiliations to academic and industry organizations. Her current research interest includes ICT4D, m-Learning, e-Learning, Web 2.0, healthcare, wireless and mobile technology. Adi Tedjasaputra is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.


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Labels: 2.0, card, indonesia, m-commerce, m-payment, mobile, nfc, payment, rfid, t-cash, technology

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by Eunice Sari

About a month ago, a new RFID Enterprise Visibility Centre was opened in Singapore. This joint initiative between Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd and Ngee Ann Polytechnic aims to introduce active RFID technology in Singapore.

 

Different from other RFID centres in Singapore, this privately-funded centre only focuses on research and development projects that can add values and leverage the active RFID solutions provided by Frontline using Real-Time Location System (RTLS) platform from Aeroscout, an American-based company providing enterprise visibility solutions.

Ng Chee Keong, the Sales Manager of Frontline, further said that this initiative intends to provide a mini environment for industries to try out and prove their RFID vision and concept before spending million of dollars on RFID deployment in a real environment. He also mentioned that with a significantly lower cost compared to a normal R&D organisation, an enterprise can build a prototype or demo, try it out in its actual environment and see whether the solution is suitable and workable for their organisation.

Built with an investment of more than US$200,000, the centre was still largely a work-in-progress when RFID Asia recently visited the centre. Two workstations, a couple of active RFID tags, an access point, a location receiver and an exciter were the equipments available in the centre. In addition, there were several posters of RFID projects that were previously carried out by the students of Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

The collaboration between Frontline and Ngee Ann Polytechnic has actually started a year back, including several Singapore Government projects in human tagging using active RFID technology. Within a framework of three to six month RFID projects, Ngee Ann Polytechnic's students and lecturers can gain some experience in several realistic industrial projects, while Frontline can readily tap the expertise of the academics.

The writer is an ICT Consultant and Researcher with various affiliations to academic and industry organizations. Her current research interest includes ICT4D, m-Learning, e-Learning, Web 2.0, healthcare, wireless and mobile technology.


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Labels: 2.0, aeroscout, frontline, mobile, rfid, singapore, tag, technology

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by Eunice Sari

After six weeks of internal Near Field Communication (NFC) service trial involving 30 participants, EZ-Link and StarHub today launched a new phase of trial involving pre-selected customers at the Partners Event held at The Arts House in Singapore.

 

In the next three days, both EZ-Link and Starhub will distribute 1000 NFC-enabled handsets to their pre-selected customers. The trial participants, in the next 6 months, will have an opportunity to use their new iWOW SZ1.0 handsets for contactless payment services as well as to download information from NFC tags and smart posters available at 32 bus stops along Orchard Road, Wisma Atria Shopping Mall, Orchard MRT station's concourse level, 500 ClearChannel bus shelters, 9 Golden Village Cineplexes and Sony Gallery Stores in Singapore.

Using NFC tags and smart posters conforming to the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) X 6319-4 or FeliCa standard protocol, the trial participants in Singapore can expect a similar user experience with i-mode FeliCa services that have been used in Japan since 2003.

Singapore Telecommunication (Singtel) and Network for Electronic Transfers Singapore (NETS) have also announced a plan to embark on similar public NFC service trial early next year in cooperation with Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

The writer is an ICT Consultant and Researcher with various affiliations to academic and industry organizations. Her current research interest includes ICT4D, m-Learning, e-Learning, Web 2.0, healthcare, wireless and mobile technology.


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Labels: 2.0, ez-link, japan, mobile, nfc, payment, rfid, singapore, starhub, technology

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by Eunice Sari

While contactless credit card is still a hot issue in the island-country of Singapore, several vendors in the region have started to buzz the concept of contactless mobile payment during a seminar last week.
The keyword is: NFC. The question is: Will it be a killer technology?

Near-Field Communication or NFC is a short-range 13.56 MHz wireless technology that can transfer data up to 424 kbits/s. Using standardized protocols developed by industry-sponsored NFC Forum, inter-device NFC communication is expected to establish two-way link and exchange data among different consumer products, such as mobile phones, televisions, personal computers and digital cameras. Touching and waving are the most common interaction styles that promise convenience as any other contactless technology. Nevertheless, the current usage of NFC technology is still limited to contactless card payment, contactless mobile payment and interactive smart poster.

Thian Yee Chua, the CEO of CASSIS, during a seminar in Singapore last week, emphasized the need to build an NFC ecosystem, an environment for consumer-service, for a wide adoption of NFC technology. Lim Boon Heong, the Marketing and Business Development Director in NFC business of INSIDE Contactless further detailed the importance of NFC handset availability, win-win business models and an open standard.

Contactless mobile payment is one of the applications highlighted during the seminar. Several pilots planned and initiated have involved major credit card companies, banks, merchants, mobile service providers, mobile network operators, such as: VISA, JCB, MasterCard, CCV Holland B.V, KPN, Nokia, PaySquare, Philips and ViVOtech, SK Telecom, Orange, France Telecom, China Fujian Mobile Communications Co. Ltd., Xiamen Branch and Xiamen E-Tong Card Company Ltd, 2-Eleven, Gemplus, CASSIS.

Yet, Bank of America that has conducted an NFC trial in collaboration with Venyon Oy and its 5000 employees at one of its corporate campus in Delaware reported in May 2007 that the NFC portion of the trial has flopped due to variety reasons, including undesirable mobile phone model and problems in downloading payment application to the handsets.

In addition, a security issue in the form of protocol vulnerabilities may become worse if NFC-enabled mobile phones can act as cards or terminals, can be programmed by their users and can communicate with each other (Anderson, Ross. RFID and the Middleman. Retrieved on 06-08-2007).

The writer is an ICT Consultant and Researcher with various affiliations to academic and industry organizations. Her current research interest includes ICT4D, m-Learning, e-Learning, Web 2.0, healthcare, wireless and mobile technology.


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Your Comments

The current NFC solution, being highly dependent on mobile handset (as far as mobile solution is concerned), is seen as the limitation. Such limitation can be overcame by a solution which will not depend on mobile handset.
- Eric Tan, Watchdata, Singapore, Sunday, August 12, 2007 -

Labels: 2.0, business, card, china, mobile, nfc, payment, rfid, security, singapore, technology, trial

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by Eunice Sari

A new contactless credit card offers a convenience of use and an alternative cashless payment to consumers in Singapore. While the current offering may appeal to a limited segment, there is still a room for improvement in the verification mechanism to leverage the appeal of the contactless credit card to other segments.

Last Thursday, United Overseas Bank (UOB) of Singapore launched the first contactless Visa Wave Credit Card in Singapore. Following the trial success in Malaysia and Taiwan during the first quarter of 2007, the launch of UOB One Card in Singapore is not surprising. Susan Williams, the Director of Stakeholder Communications Visa International Asia Pacific, shared with RFID Asia that as the end of March 2007, there are a total of 8.1 million Visa Wave cards issued by the banks in Malaysia, while in Taiwan the number is more staggering: 23.9 million cards, with more than 2,970 merchant locations that accept Visa Wave cards

Similar to the other contactless credit cards like Master Card PayPass and AmEx Express Pay, the UOB One Card only allows a small value of transaction without card holder's signature in about 300 island-wide retail outlets. UOB One Card holders can wave their cards on a reader terminal to pay for a purchase and expect the EMV-based payment system, a payment system built for chip-based transaction, to process a transaction and print a receipt within 4-6 seconds, without any card handover. Based on the study commissioned by Visa, this process is much faster than a signature-based card payment that takes an average of 25 seconds or a cash transaction that takes an average of 14 seconds.

The convenience of such contactless payment is not without a catch. Compared to non-contactless credit cards that require signature authorization or pin numbers from authorized card holders for each transaction, contactless credit card, such as UOB One Card, imposes no verification for any transaction up to $100. There is virtually no verification system in place to make sure that a person making contactless credit card payment is actually the authorized card owner. It will be easier for an unauthorized person who can get access to such contactless credit card to misuse the card. The owner of such contactless credit card can risk $100 multiplied by the number of transactions before the card reported as missing, stolen or misused in such scenario.

During the CommunicAsia 2007 in Singapore, we interviewed a few visitors about Visa Wave. The ages of the interview participants were all above 40. All of the interviewed participants said that they were excited to know about the coming of a new contactless payment technology, but they were still reluctant to use a contactless payment system. The feeling of uncertainty was the main reason of their hesitance, for example: they were still unsure whether they would be double-charged or triple-charged for waving a card several times.

The feeling of uncertainty for the consumers in Singapore is not without a grounded reason. In 1999, the consumers in Singapore saw a total of 400,000 Singapore dollars wrongly debited from their bank accounts through a crash in the country's cashless point-of-sale system. This experience has affected the adoption of any new cashless system in Singapore.

Targeting young professionals (23-34 years old), the launch of UOB One Card is a significant step for Singapore towards a cashless society, a vision backed by the Singapore Government since 1999. Compared to the current cashless payment system using magnetic strip cards, the UOB One cards will introduce a relatively new interaction style in cashless payment for the consumers in Singapore. Consumers and merchants alike using the contactless credit card system may expect a significant portion of learning and teething problems in the upcoming days and months ahead. In addition, UOB One Card may not also be as popular as its predecessors in Taiwan and Malaysia because the credit card will only be appealing to a small segment in the Singapore's aging society.

The writer is an ICT Consultant and Researcher with various affiliations to academic and industry organizations. Her current research interest includes ICT4D, m-Learning, e-Learning, Web 2.0, healthcare, wireless and mobile technology.


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Labels: 2.0, card, malaysia, mobile, payment, reader, rfid, singapore, technology, trial

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Edited Press Release.

ViVOtech, Inc. announced on 7th February 2007 the first deployment of an end-to-end NFC payment and promotion infrastructure software in Taiwan as part of a joint initiative by MasterCard, Taipei Fubon Bank and Taiwan Mobile.

ViVOtech's over-the-air (OTA) infrastructure solution, ViVOnfc Suite 2.0, enables program participants to securely download Taipei Fubon MasterCard® PayPass™ cards, as well as incentive promotions and coupons over the cellular networks directly to their NFC mobile phones. Available for the first time, coupons are also downloaded using NFC technology by simply touching mobile phones on smart posters located throughout the region and at retailer's storefronts.

The trial participants in the program use the ViVOwallet software application on their NFC mobile phones to view and select cards for payment and coupons for redemption ViVOpay-enabled point of sale systems. These contactless systems are installed at some of the most prestigious retailers throughout Taipei and are used by just touching the mobile phone to ViVOpay readers to transfer card or coupon information.

NFC is a very short-range proximity technology that uses radio frequency (RF) to enable secure, contactless communication between devices. Contactless payments are only one of the many data-transfer applications that NFC technology enables, making it an attractive technology for carriers looking to increase handset utility for consumers.

MasterCard PayPass offers consumers a convenient alternative to cash that allows for small-ticket purchases to be completed quickly, securely and easily. Consumers no longer need to fumble for cash and coins, swipe a card, or sign a receipt for any PayPass purchase under US$25. Users simply tap their PayPass-enabled phone, card, or device on the PayPass reader at participating merchants and they are on their way.

The patent-pending ViVOnfc Suite 2.0 is comprised of the ViVOnfc Issuer ServerTM, ViVOnfc Control ServerTM and ViVOwallet® mobile phone application.

* ViVOnfc Issuer Server (VnIS) – The VnIS server resides onsite at the issuer's premises providing secure Softcard provisioning services for mobile payment devices, allowing the issuer to maintain full possession and control of their softcard data that they wish to issue to their customers mobile devices.
* ViVOnfc Control Server (VnCS) – The VnCS server resides onsite at the mobile operator's premises, providing administrative services to support the secure element on a mobile payment device. As such, the VnCS provides for a central secure management point for control of all softcard provisioning to a mobile device. The pre-personalization and provisioning of payment applets to the mobile device, as well as the device authentication and softcard provisioning are controlled and managed by the VnCS.
* ViVOwallet® – ViVOwallet application runs on NFC mobile phones enabling multiple payment-related applications, managing secure data, to enable secure contactless payment transactions. ViVOwallet provides the interface for provisioning softcard data to mobile devices as well as the user interface to transmit payment card or coupon information directly to POS terminals equipped with a contactless reader.

ViVOtech is providing coupon-enabled smart posters and VIVOpay contactless readers for the pilot program. All ViVOtech solution components were delivered in the native Mandarin language to facilitate usage by trial participants. The program went live in February 2007.


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Labels: 2.0, mobile, nfc, payment, rfid, technology

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During the RFID Asia Meeting in Jakarta last December 2006, we presented the Mobile RFID 2.0 project to the RFID community for the first time.

Utilising mobile and RFID technologies, we have outlined several guidelines and concepts that characterize the Mobile RFID 2.0 ubiquitous network architecture. One of the concepts, the blur distinction between RFID tags and readers, suggests for RFID applications that require logical bond or connection among physical objects.

Interestingly, a European semiconductor manufacturer, EM Microelectronic, has also started to look into some RFID applications beyond traditional transportation, access control and animal identification markets. In their projects, physical objects are logically paired together using passive RFID communication technology. The company further illustrates the benefits of RFID pairing applications through smart refills and automatic identification of wireless device pairs.

After the public presentation, we have received some interesting feedbacks from the RFID community that sum up the positive interests and responses for Mobile RFID 2.0. Based on the feedbacks received from the RFID community, RFID Asia has envisioned the development of Mobile RFID 2.0 open platform and interoperable Mobile RFID 2.0 open standards and protocol.

Prospective partners interested to participate in the Mobile RFID 2.0 project are invited to contact RFID Asia for further information.

Further Info
Adi Tedjasaputra
PT. RFID Centre Asia
Singapore Representative Office
9 Temasek Blvd
#31-02 Suntec Tower Two
Singapore 038989
E-mail: firstname.lastname@rfidAsia.org
firstname: adi
lastname: tedjasaputra


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Labels: 2.0, mobile, partnership, project, rfid, singapore, tag, technology

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by Adi Tedjasaputra

The aggressive marketing campaign for RFID standards led by EPCglobal has been successful. At least, many who have heard about RFID, most likely have also heard about Electronic Product Code (EPC), EPCglobal standards or EPCglobal. Some even falsely identify RFID with EPC. There is no doubt that the EPC branding is in the mind of many people, for better or for worse.

5-Cent RFID Tags
Ideally, a marketing power should come with a responsibility to fulfil promises advertised in the marketing campaign. Unfortunately, in the real world, promises do not always come true in time and people often get disappointed, and sometimes confused and frustrated.

How many times have you heard or read people talk about 5-cent RFID tags?

Here, instead of discussing whether the 5-cent tag is a myth or a feasible vision, it is necessary to point out that 5-cent price target was originally introduced by Sanjay Sarma and his colleagues, who are also involved in the development of EPC. Riding the 5-cent buzz, EPC, a unique numbering scheme endorsed by EPCglobal, has gained popularity in the recent years, at the expense of RFID technology and industry in general.

We quickly determined that if RFID tags were ever going to have a shot at being widely used, a 5-cent price target was important for both psychological and commercial reasons. In return, though, the volumes would have to be very high—for example, more than 5 billion bar codes are scanned daily today. The problem with RFID tags at the time was that the industry was "stuck" in a higher-margin, lower-volume mind-set. At the Auto-ID Center, we set about flipping it to a high-volume, low-margin approach. (Integrating RFID, Sanjay Sarma, ACM Queue vol. 2, no. 7 - October 2004)

There is no doubt when Sanja Sarma and his colleagues envisioned 5-cent RFID tags, they were comparing RFID tags with barcode labels and referring only to retail supply chain item tagging, instead of the general RFID tags and applications.

Nevertheless, when the news of 5-cent RFID tags was published in the media, many became excited and over-enthusiastic. Some unrealistic expectations started to be unfolded. Many people easily forget or ignore the underlying assumption that an initial large volume purchase is necessary to achieve the 5-cent RFID tag vision.

Is Gen 2 the Silver Bullet?
Realising the shortcomings of the Class 0 and Class 1 UHF Air Interface Protocol Standard, EPCglobal began its work on the second generation of UHF air interface protocol mostly known as Gen 2. The standard was later ratified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) last year.

When EPCglobal later realised that the strengths of UHF RFID technology comes with its weaknesses and limitations, the organization started to look into HF RFID technology and formed HF Air Interface Working Group. The Working Group currently works toward the extension of Gen 2 into HF band.

The less known facts are actually the cost for involvement in the EPCglobal and the cost of adopting EPCglobal standards. If you are an end user, you have to pay at least US$750 (EPCglobal North America) for the initial subscription fee, in addition to other fees. Solution providers will have to pay more. The subscription fee schedule for companies outside the United States is less transparent, but since EPCglobal is a joint-venture between GS1 and GS1 US, one may expect similar fees to be collected as well.

Beside the high organisational and infrastructure costs, the design of current Gen 2 protocol standard ironically does not reflect any breakthrough towards the vision of 5-cent RFID tags, especially with added security feature extensions for RFID Supply Chain item-level tagging that will increase the total tag manufacturing cost.

The result of unrealistic expectations is predictable: disappointment. RFID vendors will fail to meet unrealistic expectations already generated by aggressive and unrealistic marketing campaign, including the demand for 5-cent tags. RFID technology and industry will get more bad press, in addition to the current opposition from already flourishing privacy groups. Wait-and-see attitude towards RFID implementations will become more common among potential RFID adopters, including the ones outside the retail supply chain industry. The expectation of large volume purchase that can decrease general RFID tag price will happen in a very slow pace, along with various setbacks.

Fortunately, there are hundreds of RFID applications that are independent from the need to adopt EPCglobal standards. These RFID applications are primarily unrelated to the supply chain industry. Nevertheless, we still urgently need a healthy dosage of marketing campaign that is balanced with rational and realistic expectations and actions to move beyond the current hype. We need to prevent one drop of indigo to stain the whole cauldron of milk (*).

(*) "One drop of indigo stains the whole cauldron of milk" is an Indonesian proverb that means one minor ill behaviour can ruin the whole good things or efforts.


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Labels: 2.0, epc, epcglobal, iso, privacy, rfid, scm, security, tag, technology

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Edited Press Release.

TOKYO, September 12, 2006 – On August 28, Fuji Xerox inaugurated use of a returnable container to distribute spare parts to 500 service locations in Japan as well as a container recovery system, which the company has jointly developed with Starway Co., Ltd.

Fuji Xerox had been using cardboard containers when delivering new spare parts and recovering used ones, and these containers could only be used for the roundtrip. The new container, based on Starway's E-Star Pack (ESP) and customized for transporting Fuji Xerox's spare parts, is durable enough to be used more than 100 times, reducing the total amount of new packaging materials by 1,294 tons (74 percent of the present level) and container purchasing costs by 55 percent by 2010. Also, carbon dioxide as well as nitrogen oxide emissions can be reduced by 658 tons and 0.82 tons respectively by 2010, in the process of producing and recycling of the materials, thus reducing environmental impact in the logistics area.

The newly co-developed containers have incorporated the following points in addition to the ESP's original features:

1. Can be neatly folded so that nine of them fit into one packNote, enabling sets of ten to be recovered together, reducing the cost of recovering empty containers to one-tenth.

2. By making the material thinner while maintaining durability, the overall weight of the container has been reduced from more than 5kg to 3.1kg.

3. A new traceability system utilizing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), ESP-take II developed by Starway, enables an increased container turnover rate and manages contents' availability as well as recovery on the Web.

Quick and accurate recovery of empty containers at minimum cost is the key to keeping returnable logistics systems profitable, and the new container and its recovering system has overcome such challenges.


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Labels: 2.0, japan, rfid, technology

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STMicroelectronics has introduced a UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) contactless memory chip, compliant with the latest Electronic Product Code™ (EPC) specifications.

The new XRAG2 builds on its predecessor (XRA00)for Very Long Range RFID systems and operates at a range of UHF frequencies from 860 to 960MHz. This frequency agility ensures the same tag can be applied and read at any place in the world, regardless of the geographically varying wireless regulations.

The XRAG2 features an anti-collision mechanism that allows the reader to detect and correctly identify all tags in its operating range. Designed for the noisy and unpredictable radio conditions typical of RFID applications, ST devices use a tag-unique selection based on a 16-bit random handle.

The Generation 2 specifications also optimize system performance in different reader environments. At facilities with more than 10 readers, XRAG2 chips are capable of operating in the dense-reading mode, which minimizes interference by allowing readers to transmit within a different sub-band from the one within which the tags respond.

The XRAG2’s security mechanisms include password-protection against tampering and the KILL command that supports disabling tags in the field so their data can never again be accessed. The ability to permanently deactivate a tag is vital in satisfying consumer privacy concerns. For example, the KILL command could be executed when the tagged item is purchased by a consumer, thereby disabling future tracking.

The XRAG2 is a 432-bit memory offering two possible configurations, thus allowing the tag to store dedicated industrial codes: three memory banks (64 bits TID, 304 bits for EPC code and 64 bits reserved), or four memory banks (128 bits user, 64 bits TID, 176 bits for EPC code and 64 bits reserved).

Developed using a highly reliable and mature CMOS technology with embedded EEPROM, the XRAG2 is well-suited to high-volume, cost-driven markets. Its non-volatile memory technology features 40-year data retention and more than 10,000 Write/Erase cycles to support the requirements of long-life applications.

Engineering samples of the XRAG2 are now with key partners, with full sample availability within the next few weeks and volume production expected by December 2005. The device is priced at $0.07 in 100,000 unit quantities. The product can be ordered in thin un-sawn wafers, or in bumped and sawn wafers.

Labels: 2.0, chip, epcglobal, privacy, reader, rfid, security, stmicro, tag, technology, tracking

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A vision of developing the smallest RFID chips with a competitive price has never been stronger than ever in Asia.

After the release of Japanese Hitachi's µ-Chip as the smallest RFID chip in the world, Silicon Craft Technology Co.,Ltd. in Thailand claims its readiness to work on the world's smallest microchip with a competitive price of 2 Thailand Bath each.

Competing with the size of the current smallest RFID chip in the world, the new chip is just 0.30 millimeters square compared with Hitachi's 0.40 millimeters square µ-Chip, according to the Silicon Craft Technology's Managing Director.

Labels: 2.0, chip, rfid, technology, thailand

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