Atlanta Spirit, Chase, Cingular, Nokia, Philips, Visa USA and ViVOtech to pilot next-generation mobile phone contactless payment and content applications

Atlanta, Georgia, USA - A group of industry-leading companies today announced an advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) trial for mobile phone applications including contactless payments, mobile content and premium arena services at Philips Arena in Atlanta.  The trial is the first large-scale test of next-generation mobile phone applications in North America, and is the result of a collaboration between Chase (NYSE: JPM), Cingular Wireless, Nokia, Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), Visa USA, and ViVOtech, along with Atlanta Spirit, LLC, parent company of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.  The trial has been designed to enable a secure, wireless system that simplifies payment and services for arena visitors.
 
During the trial, Atlanta Thrashers and Hawks season ticket holders with Chase-issued Visa credit accounts and Cingular Wireless accounts can make contactless payments at concession stands and access mobile content from numerous locations throughout the arena. Users can purchase items by simply holding their Nokia 3220 mobile phones equipped with Philips' NFC semiconductor chips and ViVOtech software near a secure terminal. Approximately 150 contactless point of sale (POS) readers have been deployed by ViVOtech throughout Philips Arena. For mobile content downloads, Cingular Wireless will be the carrier that enables these services to take place over its digital wireless network.
 
"By 2010, we expect that over 50 percent of all mobile handsets will incorporate Near Field Communication chips to enable short-range, easy and secure transactions," said Erik Michielsen, director at market analyst firm ABI Research. "As a result, consumers will be able to download content by simply holding their phone close to a poster or advertising billboard.  Users can purchase merchandise, food, tickets, and have these transactions charged to a credit card using account information stored in the mobile phone. The NFC implementation at Philips Arena demonstrates NFC stakeholders, including chipmakers, card issuers, device makers, mobile carriers, and content providers, are progressively more willing to collaborate on NFC solution development.  This type of co-development is essential to NFC market growth and maturation."
 
The contactless transactions will create faster and simpler payments at concession stands getting fans out of the lines and back to the game. At checkout, the phone is simply held near a secure reader and the contactless payment transaction is automatically charged to the user via the same secure Visa payment network that processes traditional credit card transactions today.
 
Fans will also be able to access and download mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers, and clips from favorite players and artists by holding their NFC-enabled phone in front of a poster embedded with an NFC tag.
 
 
About Atlanta Spirit
Atlanta Spirit, LLC, is the parent company of the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.
 
About Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.2 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. The company has more than 100 million credit cards issued. Under the JPMorgan, Chase and Bank One brands, the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients. Information about the firm is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
 
About Cingular:
Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 52.3 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc., formerly SBC Communications Inc.,  (NYSE: T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS), has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation -- the ALLOVER (SM) network -- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover (SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com. Get Cingular Wireless press releases e-mailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://www.cingular.com/newsroom.
 
About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.
 
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion in 2004). With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 161,100 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.
 
About Visa USA
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs.  Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payment system - Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 13,420 Member financial institutions, more than 488 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United States.  Last year, U.S.-based financial institutions relied on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions with unparalleled reliability.
 
Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.
 
Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources -- anytime, anywhere, anyway.
 
About ViVOtech
ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com) is the market leader in contactless payment software, transaction management systems and readers. These solutions allow consumers to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit cards, debit cards, key fobs, and NFC enabled mobile phones. ViVOtech's products can be found at some of nation's most prominent retailers. With more than 130,000 units shipped, ViVOtech's products are being used by movie theaters, fast food restaurants (QSR), casual dining establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery and vending machine locations enabling them to accept contactless/NFC payments. For the field pilot, ViVOtech provided payment software applications for NFC mobile phones, and has enabled over 150 POS terminals at Philips Arena with its contactless readers.