Wireless Technology on the Track and In the Stands
PowerSwipe(TM) Provides Simple and Secure Wireless Credit Card Processing for Racing Fans at Daytona Races
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 -- Creditel, a company that offers secure credit card payment via Nextel handsets by Motorola on Nextel's nationwide data network, will make it easy for vendors to process customers' credit card purchases with its PowerSwipe(TM) device at the Daytona races on February 14 and 15, including the Hershey's Kisses 300.
"The PowerSwipe is the perfect solution for the race track and other locations where traditional credit card terminals are not available," said Georges F. Elias, chief executive officer of Creditel. "This is just the beginning. In the next few months consumers will be able to use credit cards at vendors using PowerSwipe ranging from race tracks, delivery businesses, airport shuttles and field service technicians."
"With this wireless payment solution, we have created a truly mobile retail sales environment in which vendors offer their customers more choices, increase the speed of credit card transactions, and reduce expenses and bad debt," says Bob Halcrow, Nextel's vice president, Retail Industries. "We see the Creditel PowerSwipe as a great solution for our retail customers and one that will enable many of them to expand their businesses to include secure off-site sales."
The PowerSwipe point-of-sale (POS) device revolutionizes mobile businesses by making it fast, easy and affordable to securely process credit cards directly from Java(TM) technology-enabled Motorola iDEN i50sx, i55sr, i58sr, i85s and i88s handsets for Nextel. PowerSwipe has a sleek design that connects to the phone for convenient, unobstructed use. Weighing only 3.1 ounces, it incorporates a magnetic strip reader, infrared printing port, and pass-through connector for charging the handset battery in an easily integrated package.
The PowerSwipe device utilizes Creditel's patent-pending advanced digital "secure-at-the-swipe" encryption technology. This technology, specifically designed to guard against credit card skimming and identity theft, is not available in any other mobile or stationary POS device. With the PowerSwipe, transactions are authorized and verified in seconds, instead of minutes and can support a fax or email transaction record or print a standard receipt to a wireless printer.
During the nationally televised Daytona race, Creditel and Televigation will sponsor Kevin Conway's No. 57 Dodge Intrepid which will feature the PowerSwipe logo on the car. Televigation, which developed the TeleNav solution, will also have their logo featured on the car. TeleNav provides driving directions service and a location-based tracking system for use through the Nextel network and handsets. An introductory version of TeleNav is preloaded on Nextel's new NASCAR Nextel Cup Series(TM) phones and NASCAR Nextel Cup Series(TM) Driver Phones.
"I am excited about racing at Daytona with the PowerSwipe and TeleNav teams behind me," said Conway, 25, a technology enthusiast himself, who drives for team owner Ernie Irvan. "PowerSwipe and TeleNav emphasize speed,
convenience and security. Those are subjects I can definitely understand and appreciate."
About Creditel
Creditel offers businesses of all sizes secure, affordable, fast and easy-to-use wireless transaction solutions and an interactive environment designed to immediately increase profitability and enhance productivity. For more information on Creditel products and services, please visit www.creditelcorp.com.
About Televigation
Televigation is the leading provider of technology enabling wireless motion-based services, which are location-based services specifically designed for the growing use of wireless devices in a mobile context. Motion-based services focus on a wireless user's movement, because in a mobile world the path of the user determines what information is relevant for the user. Televigation's technology can deliver voice-interface, feature-rich motion-based services over standard mobile phones and other wireless devices. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.televigation.com.
About Nextel
Nextel Communications, a FORTUNE 300 company based in Reston, Va., is a leading provider of fully integrated wireless communications services and has built the largest guaranteed all-digital wireless network in the country covering thousands of communities across the United States. Today 95 percent of FORTUNE 500(R) companies are Nextel customers. Nextel and Nextel Partners, Inc. currently serve 293 of the top 300 U.S. markets where approximately 249 million people live or work.
For more information, please contact: Seth Jacobson, seth@jcipr.com, or Rob Wynne, rob@jcipr.com, both for Creditel, +1-310-317-1966.