Use Sound waves to Pay digitally- no need of Internet any more

 
Sound waves are emerging as a potential game-changer for digital payments. The technology is making financial transactions possible between devices without the need for internet connectivity or communication tools such as NFC, widening the scope for digital payments. J Vignesh gives a lowdown on how the technology works:

How can you pay with sound? You can use a mobile app equipped with sound-based payments technology to make purchases at a store by placing your phone near the merchant's device. The app has to be linked to your bank or credit card accounts or digital wallets. The transaction happens over sound waves. Bengaluru-based ToneTag and UltraCash have developed sound-based payments technology that function independently or can be integrated with the platforms of banks or digital wallets. Digital wallet Paytm earlier this year announced it was testing sound waves-based technology for payments.

How it works
An algorithm is used to encode data into sound waves which can be transmitted for making offline payments. It has to be integrated at both ends — the buyer's mobile phone as well as the merchant's phone or card readers. There is no need for any additional hardware. A transaction is initiated when a merchant's device generates sound containing the encrypted payment data. This data is received by the microphone on the buyer's phone.



Sound is an analog signal, which means it is continuous. So, when the merchant initiates the payment by entering the bill amount on his device, the algorithm converts the numbers (digital) into analog format. During this conversion, the digital signal is massaged with encryption. An error-detecting code is used to detect any accidental changes to the raw data.

The analog data is transmitted through the merchant's device as a sound signal to the buyer's phone. The buyer needs to place their phone near the merchant's device to receive the bill. The buyer's phone does the reverse of the above steps and decrypts the data, so the bill is readable. The buyer then makes the payment through a digital wallet or debit or credit card.

Source: ET telecom

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Freedom Pop (Startup) offering free voice and data plans getting investment fund from LetterOne

http://www.freedompop.com/

FreedomPop, a U.S. startup challenging the mobile industry by offering free voice and data plans, has received a $50 million investment to fund international expansion from LetterOne, the investment vehicle owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
Luxembourg-based LetterOne (L1) said on Tuesday it had received national security clearance from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to complete the $50 million investment.
FreedomPop announced the investment earlier this year but did not reveal the identity of the investor.
FreedomPop, founded five years ago in Los Angeles, supplies voice and data services for mobile users by leasing wholesale network capacity from established mobile network providers such as Sprint and Hutchison's Three UK.
The company offers packages of voice calling minutes, text messages and data plans of around 200 megabytes free of charge, making money when consumers use up their free capacity and by charging for add-on services.
FreedomPop offers mobile voice and data services in the United States, Britain, and Spain. It now plans to enter eight more countries by the end of next year, followed by a fast roll-out across Asia, Europe and Latin America.
The company has introduced a variety of novel offers to the telecom industry including a low-cost Wi-Fi calling and data service across the United States and offers that give callers free access to WhatsApp in 30 countries.
LetterOne will help forge strategic partnerships in emerging markets for FreedomPop, the investor said. It seeks to fund late-stage high-growth Internet companies and announced a $200 million investment in Uber earlier this year.
L1 Senior Partner Mustafa Kiral will join FreedomPop's board of directors. He previously oversaw mergers and acquisitions at Altimo, the telecom investment arm of Fridman, including a joint venture between Russia's Vimpelcom and Wind Italy.
FreedomPop has raised around $109 million to date from a variety of top-tier Silicon Valley and European venture funds, along with Malaysian telecoms conglomerate Axiata Group .

Source :ETtelecom

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