Alcineo and Coppernic announce SoftPOS Payment Technology integration into Mobile Ticket Inspection Solution

Coppernic has announced that they have integrated the Alcineo SoftPOS payment solution into their rugged handheld device ticketing offering for Public Transportation markets. Coppernic is a market leader for handheld ticket inspection devices in France, with installations in 80% of French cities with more than 100K inhabitants. Alcineo is a specialist in the development of EMV payment kernels, contact and contactless and logical security modules. They partner with payment solution providers in a number of market applications, including transit.

Sébastien Michon, Coppernic Sales Director, Smart City, described the technology partnership as an evolution in response to changes in the public transportation ticketing world. “Coppernic has always been able to provide specialized, rugged devices that can meet all operator demands for ticket inspection, with high performance RFID capability, aggressive barcode scanning, and long operating life. This partnership allows us to continue to address ticket inspection and sales requirements as operators embrace EMV ticketing and open payment solutions”. 

The SoftPOS solution from Alcineo enables the Coppernic handheld terminals to securely read EMV credit cards, as well as other mobile payment methods such as smartphone wallets or smartwatches, in addition to all the traditional ticketing technologies such as ISO 14443 Mifare, Calypso, and more. In addition, the SoftPOS solution allows the devices to receive direct payments without the use of a separate accessory, enabling mobile ticket sales or direct issuance of fines or penalty payments on the spot. 

According to Arnaud Corria, President of Alcineo “this collaboration demonstrates that SoftPOS convenience and flexibility can accelerate transport ticketing digitalization. SoftPOS possesses the right assets for transit operators either for fine and ticket payment or fare inspection” 

The Alcineo SoftPOS SDK enables flexibility and reliability when deploying mobile payment solutions that adhere to the relevant PCI standards. Their unique solution does not rely solely on Android but uses enhanced functionality and the security of native code for contactless or PIN-entry payments. It also provides tokenization functionality for public transportation ticketing applications, to ensure card data protection and provide functionality to support future open loop payment systems. 

“Unlike consumer smartphone technology, specialized handheld ticketing devices have long life cycles”, Sébastien Michon added. “These devices need to be multi-functional and flexible, to be ready to accept the technology evolutions that occur over their lifetime. The Alcineo SoftPOS solution is an excellent addition to future-proof ticket inspection and sales for many years to come”.