Cellular phone card

U S West Cellular and American Express recently hit the ground running with a new credit card verification via cellular service. When most operators are just thinking about offering mobile-data services, U S West debuted the data service at the recent Phoenix Open golf tournament. The service offered to the tournament's more than 400,000 spectators the luxury of charging admission tickets, food, souvenirs and other merchandise to their credit cards.

U S West is considering implementing the service in additional cellular markets. It is especially applicable to areas that offer seasonal festival activities and those involving large crowds at remote locations.

"Uses can include tennis tournaments, balloon and music festivals and many other types of gatherings," said Bruce Walko, Southwest region executive director for U S West Cellular. Darcy McCullock, vice president of American Express [Point of Sale (POS)] Services, said that American Express is exploring additional applications for POS involving airport limousines, shuttles and hotel vans.

...The Service Is a Combination of Hardware

The service uses a credit card verifier manufactured by American Express with specially designed software. The software enables the equipment to use cellular frequencies instead of land-line service.

The units also include a small receipt printer and a Motorola 2600 carryphone with an RJ11 interface. U S West is looking for a hardware solution that economically combines the three elements into one small unit, said Carol Baker, spokeswoman for U S West. However, currently the firm has not been able to develop such a unit.

The service for the U S Open was created by establishing 17 point-of-sale terminals linked to battery-powered cellular phones, said Walko.

"When the POS terminal reads a card number, it dials a preprogrammed number and gives the information to a computer," Walko said. Additionally, "the computer checks the account and determines authorization."

Although U S West has more than 50 cell sites in the metropolitan Phoenix area to accommodate the data-transmissions, which use cellular voice channels, the operator added a temporary 45-radio cell site on the golf course in Scottsdale, Ariz. Even with the backup cellular site, the firm was still concerned that between the data transmissions and the influx of 400,000 tournament attendees the cellular system may suffer a capacity problem. "In spite of the POS's potential impact on the cellular network, the system did not reach capacity," said Baker.