onsumers want to use their credit and debit cards anywhere and anytime. The increasing reliance on electronic payments at the POS not only requires more efficient card processing solutions for merchants to handle increased transactions, but also new processing solutions so they can accept payment in non-traditional places.

For example, Retriever Payment Systems, a Houston, Texas-based payment processor, worked with VeriFone to deploy a wireless payment solution for the renowned, three week-long Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This event is one of the largest of its type. The 2005 show drew more than 1.7 million attendees. During the previous two years, Retriever used, with mixed results, earlier generation data networks deployed in the United States. This year, working with the new VeriFone Vx 610 mobile payment solution and code division multiple access (CDMA) services from Verizon Wireless, Retriever found a system that worked reliably.

Earlier wireless networks in the United States, Motient DataTAC, cellular digital packet data (CDPD) and Mobitex, proved to be disappointing and unreliable. But now, major carriers have rolled out standardized "2.5G" and third-generation (3G) networks based on general packet radio service (GPRS) and CDMA.

While carriers designed the earlier networks for vertical markets, the newer offerings from mainstream carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Cingular are already broadly established and also support everyday mobile phone use.

Retriever deployed the new wireless systems among the volunteer staff in the huge Reliant Park entertainment complex, where the livestock show and rodeo were held, and processed thousands of electronic transactions during each week of the event.

Reliant Park is Houston's top tradeshow, convention, sports and entertainment campus and is comprised of Reliant Stadium, Reliant Center, Reliant Astrodome and Reliant Arena. Retriever placed VeriFone's solutions in the stadium, in the parking lot and in the convention center.

"In the past we have used other wireless devices utilizing the Motient or Mobitex transmission systems, but were never completely satisfied," said Forrest Sealey, Retriever Payment Systems' Vice President of Merchant Technical Support.

With no wiring or installation issues, payment processing becomes an imminently flexible and cost-effective option that businesses can implement in a snap. Unlike dial service, wireless provides "always on" connectivity and fast transaction rates so that merchants' customers spend less time waiting. They also move through check-out lanes faster, which increases throughput and reduces potential "walkaway" customers who grow tired of waiting in a long line.

What to Look For in Wireless

An important consideration for portable and transportable POS is a true all-in-one design that includes a built-in printer and communications to eliminate dongles, charging bases and other add-ons that would inhibit mobility and increase the risk of lost and broken items.

Wireless POS needs to look and feel as much like an existing wired POS terminal as possible to instill confidence, minimize training and leverage the existing help desk, documentation, and everything else in which payment processors and merchants have invested. The goal is to ensure a very narrow leap of faith in the move to wireless.

For the most part, merchants don't want to move to a technology solution until it has been proven to work. They don't want to worry about whether it will function when they need it. Merchants want simplicity.

The less complex the device, in merchants' view, means less chance of something going wrong. For most people, that also means an integrated printer and a standard PIN pad. The more familiar the device's look and feel, the more comfortable they are in putting it in the hands of their sales clerks.

While the mobile phone is now ubiquitous as a mobile communications device, it falls short as a robust and trusted payment device. In limited situations, it might be adequate, but not in situations that require a full function, secure and supportable terminal. True wireless payment terminals make much more sense for general mobile use.

An effective wireless payment solution provides a secure payment processing environment with advanced hardware tamper detection and response, PIN entry device (PED) security approval, and 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for Internet protocol-based transaction processing and application downloading.

The product is agnostic with regard to telecom standards and can support both CDMA and GPRS networking technologies, as well as Wi-Fi. It incorporates a dial-up modem so merchants can plug it into landlines where needed.

This type of solution is smaller than previous devices, yet still features a comfortable, familiar ATM-style interface and includes an integrated printer. In essence, it extends the countertop payment model to wherever consumers are, whether shopping at open markets or buying home-delivered products and services.

For Retriever Payment Systems, the need for simplicity and familiarity at Reliant Park was paramount because the operators are volunteers who only work there once a year for a three-week period.

"I asked the techs on my staff every night during the rodeo how things were going, and the volunteer operators kept asking them why we didn't have this equipment last year," Sealey said. "It is the operators who define the success of these systems."

As digital cellular services continue to decline in price, GPRS and CDMA will increasingly become an option even for standalone countertop use. The cost of installing traditional dial-up lines and the often lengthy delays in implementing service can serve as a tremendous inhibitor to expanding operations or starting up new ventures.

Wireless has no physical installation issues, beyond delivery of the system and turning it on. Unlike wireline implementations, merchants can move a wireless system at a moments notice and set it up instantly.

For example, merchants who want to hold a sidewalk sale won't necessarily have to acquire a new system; they could simply take their existing system outside and set up shop.

Wi-Fi is particularly attractive in venues where merchants can share a single DSL or cable modem connection among many devices.

This immediately cuts the cost of multiple phone lines and even allows merchants the option to offer Wi-Fi "hot spot" access to customers using laptops and other devices.

Look for wireless products that employ SSL encryption to prevent the risk of any data being intercepted. SSL creates a shared key, or "share secret," between two devices, so that only those devices can understand the information that is passed between them.

Doug Edwards is General Manager, ISO Sales, with VeriFone. Contact him at doug_edwards@verifone.com .