Today the very first mobile credit card transaction in Canada was made using an NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone.
Using his BlackBerry, Olympian Simon Whitfield purchased a coffee at a Tim Horton’s in Toronto by tapping his phone against the contactless pay terminal, without needing to retrieve a card from his wallet.
The purchase was possible thanks to CIBC’s new Mobile Payment App, available to CIBC credit card customers using BlackBerry smartphones from Rogers beginning November 16.
The new app represents the future of transactions in Canada, and will make it easier for CIBC credit card holders to pay for their everyday needs, from groceries to a morning coffee.
BlackBerry smartphones have been recognized as a leader in providing mobile payments for some time, becoming the first smartphones to be certified for SIM-secure NFC payments using the MasterCard® PayPass System and are also approved for use with Visa® payWave. More recently, RIM was selected by EnStream LP, a joint venture of Bell, Rogers and TELUS, to provide its BlackBerry® Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution to manage credentials on Canadian wireless handsets that support NFC services.
The release from CIBC and Rogers can be found here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canadian-first-mobile-payments-using-smartphones-now-accepted-at-tim-hortons-176966101.html