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MasterCard Canada is working alongside Research In Motion and BMO Bank of Montreal to bring contactless payments to Canadians through the PayPass ‘tap and go’ payment system. Currently in a four-month trial, participants will be able to make purchases at over 8,500 stores with their tag-equipped BlackBerry devices.

The MasterCard PayPass will be integrated with the BlackBerry, with a confirmation email of each transaction sent to the BlackBerry
smartphone, including purchase details such as the amount, retailer and
date of transaction.

“Interest in mobile commerce continues to grow and the BlackBerry
platform is uniquely positioned to provide a secure, robust and
reliable foundation for innovative solutions such as the PayPass Mobile
Tag,” said Tyler Lessard, Vice President, Global
Alliances and Developer Relations at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry
products and services have simplified and enhanced a broad range of
everyday tasks with a unique mobile experience and we look forward to
working with MasterCard and BMO to extend that mobile experience to
commerce.”

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The way this works is with a PayPass Mobile Tag, a self-adhesive device that may be attached to a
BlackBerry smartphone to add MasterCard PayPass contactless payment
capability. The Mobile Tag contains the same chip and antenna found in
a regular PayPass card, with the addition of special material to reduce
interference between the Mobile Tag and the phone to which it is
attached.

It will be very interested to see how well this turns out in four months. If all goes well in Canada, perhaps we will see this integrated globally, where ever MasterCard PayPass payments are accepted.

[Press Release]