10 Sep How does the 4G upgrade affect your ability to accept credit card payments?
Everyone with a smartphone is using the 4g network, and most major networks are already working on 5g in highly populated areas. 4g has faster upload and download speeds and ultimately supports the human need to watch your favorite show while in a sitting room. Because credit card transactions use a fraction of a video file size there has not been a need to move up from a 3g network until now.
Verizon and AT&T have both announced plans of retiring, and no longer supporting their 3g networks. Verizon was retiring theirs at the end of 2019, but have extended to end of 2020 and AT&T is at end of 2021. This would make you think that we have some time to make the switch off of 3g, but what we are also seeing with this retirement is that they are not fixing or upgrading any 3g towers. While customers may have four bars on their phone, their credit card terminal may not be able to get signal because the local tower is not supporting 3g. We are encouraging merchants to upgrade their current terminals to a 4g device to have the best support and coverage for payment acceptance.
Most Mercantile Processing Inc (MPI) merchants with mobile processing needs are using a Pax S90 CDMA (Verizon) or Pax S90 GPRS (AT&T). We are moving these customers to the Pax S920 which is a touch screen device that supports both Verizon and AT&T 4g sim chips. It supports EMV, swipe, keyed entry, EBT, SNAP, and NFC(Apple Pay, Android Pay, Etc). These devices are available for short term and long term rentals and the price includes the wireless fee. Need a mobile payment solution? Call our sales team to find out more.
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About MPI
Mercantile Processing INC is a credit card processing and hardware distribution company formed in 2006 specializing in small and medium business market for credit card machines, point of sale systems, gift cards and payroll.
Contact MPI Sales: 877-598-2831 option 2