American telecommunications conglomerate Verizon Business has signed a deal with Mastercard Inc to use 5G and wireless technology for contactless payments and provide an autonomous checkout service for retail stores.
With the danger of Covid-19 third wave looming large, telecom operators including Verizon seek to expand into new businesses ranging from robotics to fintech companies that they think will benefit from the growing adoption of 5G technology.
The Verizon Business has tied up with Mastercard and looks to utilise 5G smartphones and near-field communication (NFC) technology for merchants to accept customer payments without the need for point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
The global companies are also planning to use computer vision technology and cloud computing to provide automatic checkout at unattended retail stores, similar to what Amazon did with Go stores.
The new concept is yet to be fully adopted by major global chains due to the high costs involved in deploying the necessary technology.
Verizon Business, however, aims to achieve a significant reduction in such costs, as the company is working with retail technology specialist AiFi to use computer vision and artificial intelligence to create autonomous shopping experiences.
