TNS and Blue Bamboo Partner to Provide Smartphone Payment Solutions for Synapse Customers

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Transaction Network Services (NYSE: TNS) is partnering with Blue Bamboo to enable ISOs, acquirers and processors across North America to offer their customers the ability to accept credit and debit payments through smartphone devices.

“The growing market interest in mobile phone point-of-sale (POS) payments comes with merchant concern about security and their discount rate cost for card present vs card not present transactions.”

Organizations connected to TNS’ Synapse wireless payment gateway will be able to extend their acquiring opportunities to a new segment of merchants who are interested in using smartphone devices to accept card payments from their customers.

John M. Perry, General Manager of the Americas for TNS’ Payments Division, said: “The growing market interest in mobile phone point-of-sale (POS) payments comes with merchant concern about security and their discount rate cost for card present vs card not present transactions.

“The smart phone merchant solutions from TNS and Blue Bamboo pair a magnetic stripe reader with built-in printer for capturing card present transactions. The solution allows merchants to print a physical receipt and to send an electronic receipt via email. Most importantly, it provides robust security and reliability through the use of the TNS PCI DSS certified Synapse payment gateway. We are very happy to partner with Blue Bamboo to offer ISOs a solution that brings their merchants a secure, fully managed service that can help lower the costs of accepting cards.”

The smartphone solution provides a PA DSS certified Java-based applet that runs on mobile handsets, enabling mobile merchants to perform card-swipe transactions on a variety of equipment, including certified Blackberry, Nokia and Motorola devices.

George Peabody, Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Emerging Technologies Advisory Service, said: “Blue Bamboo and TNS bring together a hardware and service combination that improves security and convenience for the new generation of mobile payment applications running on Blackberry and other smartphones. TNS Synapse wireless gateway’s integration with Blue Bamboo’s wireless devices and PocketPOS mobile application creates an opportunity for ISOs and other channel partners to provide a solution that enables mobile professionals to accept card payments.”

In addition to the mobile phone POS payment solution and device management via Synapse, TNS will soon be supporting the all-in-one Blue Bamboo H50 terminal. This has a unique modular design giving merchants the flexibility to accept credit and debit transactions, and the ability to easily convert the GPRS mobile wireless transaction device to a Bluetooth, Ethernet or Dial-Up-modem terminal.

TNS’ Synapse solution includes wireless network access, account activation, fast, reliable and secure transaction delivery to most major processors, web-based merchant and terminal management, customizable online reporting, and live 24x7 customer service. Using a PCI DSS certified processing environment, it offers a broad range of end-to-end services for ISOs and mobile merchants.

Justin Anderson, Vice President, Americas, at Blue Bamboo said: “Blue Bamboo is proud to count TNS as a partner. As a long standing leader in the payment industry, TNS understands that merchants will ultimately demand mobile payments on wireless devices and mobile phones that are secure, certified and incur lower fees through card present transactions.

“Our mobile merchant solutions have been available for 2 years and boast 1000’s of merchant deployments. The terminals are extremely reliable and highly secure as they have been designed to conform to industry standards such as PED-DSS and PA-DSS all of which provide customers with additional security protection and meet all the required payment regulations.”

Blue Bamboo is a division of Shera International which, since 1992, has manufactured POS terminals and peripherals for solution providers worldwide.

For information about TNS visit www.tnsi.com

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About Transaction Network Services

Transaction Network Services (TNS) is a leading global provider of data communications and interoperability solutions.

TNS’ offers a broad range of networks and innovative value-added services which enables transactions and the exchange of information in diverse industries such as retail, banking, payment processing, telecommunications and the financial markets.

Founded in 1990 in the United States, TNS has grown steadily and now provides services in over 40 countries across the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, with our reach extending to many more. TNS has designed and implemented multiple data networks which support a variety of widely accepted communications protocols and are designed to be scalable and accessible by multiple methods.

For further information about TNS, visit www.tnsi.com. ‘One Connection, A World of Opportunities’

Statements and information contained in our press releases and newsletters that are not descriptions of historical fact may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or performance and from any opinions or statements expressed with respect to future periods. www.tnsi.com

Contacts

Clare Cockroft

PR Manager

TNS

+44 (0) 114 292 6416

ccockroft@tnsi.com

or

Jenny Nelson

PR Assistant

TNS

+44 (0) 114 292 6458

jnelson@tnsi.com

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