When I first entered the payment business, a little over ten years ago, it was almost impossible to run a transaction without a fixed telephone line. I can even remember rigging up a Verifone Tranz-420 to a cell phone with an adaptor and selling it to a merchant. A decade and more than a half-dozen technology leaps later, wireless transactions are mainstream - and not just for mobile merchants. Whether it is a wireless local area network (WLAN) commonly referred to as WiFi, or a wireless wide area network (WAN) with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), or General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) communication, acquirers need to understand that merchants are going wireless.
    I sat with Rob Campbell and Jeff Dumbrell of Verifone, who work with many of the largest acquirers in the industry, to see what they were hearing from their customers. There are several cost and convenience advantages to going wireless: eliminating the need for dedicated phone lines for credit card terminals, as well as not having to use the same line to talk on and run payment transactions (as many small merchants do). Multi-lane merchants no longer need to run phone lines to every lane and adding a new lane during peak hours or days becomes extremely simple. The hospitality industry has a lot to gain in efficiency and speed by bringing payment directly to the table, seat, pool, or anywhere else the consumer is located. In addition, since these networks are “always on” - transactions are much faster than the old dial method, helping speed lines and increase through-put at the merchant location.
    A WiFi network, once installed, merely turns your broadband connection wireless. By installing a wireless network and terminals or POS devices with wireless cards or modems a merchant does not need to run Ethernet cables as he would with a non-wireless network. The only limitation of WiFi is that the range is not extremely broad, but for many merchants once the WiFi network is installed the speed, cost, and flexibility associated with taking payments is much greater than the wired world. Many of the hardware manufacturers are coming out with terminals that are internet ready and with a simple wireless adapter can accommodate WiFi.
    Though WiFi appears to be the talk of the industry, the opportunity for WANs to be accessed and payment terminals to be deployed may be even more straightforward. After all, there is no broadband network to hook-up when accessing one of these “always-on” wide area networks. There has also been a significant decrease in the cost for wireless transactions over the past year or two. Wireless carriers generally bill their network services based on data passed on the network instead of minutes used. With point-of-sale transactions taking up such a small amount of data, CDMA and GPRS traffic is now affordable to the fixed-location merchant, especially when you consider the merchant is eliminating the costs associated with a fixed telephone line. It is important to choose wisely between CDMA and GPRS as the modems for POS devices. In some instances, the terminals themselves are unique for different carriers. To keep your merchant happy, the determining factor of wireless carrier should be based upon the location of the merchant and which network has better coverage in that location.
    With new technologies and dropping prices leading the way, wireless POS opportunities are growing quickly. Whether these opportunities are through WLANs or WANs, wireless connectivity is almost everywhere. The savvy acquirer will be able to equip his sales force with the tools to exploit the wireless world and remove the chords from his merchants.
    The wireless world is not just for mobile merchants anymore.