10Meters News Service

November 29, 2001 – Verizon has teamed with Pennsylvania-based Wawa, a milk company-turned-convenience-store, on an m-commerce initiative aimed at getting customers gassed up and back on the road in record time.

Tested earlier this year, the program uses Verizon's wireless network and an AirLink Communications modem to download customer credit card information to Wawa's credit processor, Concord EFS.

Now "live" at Wawa's Pennsylvania and New Jersey outlets, the company says the system returns an authorization within eight seconds.

"Implementing functionality like this helps us deliver on our promise to 'make our customers lives easier' every day," said Anthony Ieradi, IT Architecture Manager for Wawa.

The system uses a Raven II Digital Packet Data (CDPD ) modem from AirLink Communications to connect to Verizon's Wireless' Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) Network.

Wawa says it plans to expand the service to "all feasible gas sites."

Wawa, Inc., is a privately held company established in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. In 1902, the company moved into milk processing in Wawa, Pennsylvania. In the early 1960s, the family opened its first Wawa Food Market. The company today operates more than 500 convenience stores in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 28.7 million wireless voice and data customers.

AirLink Communications is a remote-communications solutions provider. Its products include communications platforms, end-user software applications, intelligent clients and APIs for integration with other enterprise software.