If EFTPOS unit goes down, a typical effect today is that a merchant loses about half their business and I guarantee that this figure will go up. We have some merchants serious thinking of giving up cash altogether in which case it will be 100%.
A short time ago almost every EFTPOS unit went down with a problem from Telstra. Yesterday CBA had a problem. Today our helpdesk had people ringing up about issues with ANZ. If I made a bet that someone will contact us tomorrow about an EFTPOS unit problem, I would win as TPG is currently having internet issues.
As such, I think you should have thoughts about possible disaster planning with EFTPOS.
So have a chew about these units.
It is available from Assembly payments through Westpac, and it is part of the Presto Smart integrated EFTPOS solution. It connects directly to your computer and/or LAN (local area network) to incorporate the EFTPOS to your Point of Sale. How should your internet connection go down, this unit automatically switches over to 3G so you can continue to take payments on EFTPOS. If the 3G completely fails, it will still work in standalone mode.
Conclusion - these 3G and standalone backups in case of failure makes EFTPOS much more reliable.
If you are interested in knowing more let me know.
