Transit & Ticketing
February 19th, 2010
China Unicom to launch world’s first commercial single wire protocol based NFC service
The mobile operator has signed up five Chinese banks and five transport operators for the commercial launch of its NFC service, scheduled to take place during the second quarter of 2010. More
February 11th, 2010
China Telecom begins RF SIM trial
The country's third largest mobile network operator is testing non-NFC standard RF SIM technology in Shanghai, where China Unicom is already running an NFC trial. More
February 11th, 2010
Paris transport operators begin NFC ticketing trial
The six month trial will see 1,000 commuters replacing their current travel pass with a dedicated NFC device supplied by Neowave. More
February 11th, 2010
China Mobile begins commercial rollout of mobile contactless payments system
RF SIMs are now widely available for subscribers to purchase from China Mobile stores and the first major retailer has signed up to accept the new mobile contactless payments technology. More
February 8th, 2010
Card and chip suppliers to offer open transport ticketing standard
Infineon, Giesecke & Devrient, Oberthur Technologies and Inside Contactless have teamed up to support the creation of an open security standard for mobile and chip-based transport tickets. More
December 17th, 2009
UK government to fund switch to NFC-compatible transport ticketing
The Department for Transport is providing £20m in funding over the next five years to enable nine of England's largest urban areas to make the switch to NFC-compatible transport ticketing systems. More
November 11th, 2009
DeviceFidelity launches low cost microSD-based NFC solution
In2Pay is designed to be distributed to customers using a card issuer's existing personalisation and distribution infrastructure and can include multiple applications such as payments and transit or payments and access control. More
October 8th, 2009
Transport and mobile operators begin NFC pilot in Lisbon
The Portuguese capital's transport operators have begun a small scale NFC test in conjunction with three mobile operators, beginning on the Lisbon subway and with plans to expand to rail and bus services soon. More
September 10th, 2009
The NFC Report: Is China heading towards the adoption of NFC?
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator with 470 million subscribers, and China Unionpay, the national bank card association, were amongst the first in the world to field test NFC back in 2006. Now, both companies are taking a second look at mobile contactless payments and mobile operator China Unicom is getting in on the action too... More
September 3rd, 2009
NTT Docomo reports 10 million mobile credit card customers
There are now over ten million subscribers to NTT Docomo's Osaifu-Keitai based mobile credit card payment service DCMX and, overall, a total of 30 million Docomo subscribers are now equipped with Osaifu-Keitai handsets. More
September 3rd, 2009
National ticketing project could use NFC and contactless to save £2bn a year, says UK’s Dept for Transport
A consultation paper published by the UK's Department for Transport sets out plans for a national, integrated ticketing system that could save £2bn a year. More
August 19th, 2009
Telefónica O2 joins Deutsche Bahn’s NFC ticketing project
The mobile operator has joined Vodafone and T-Mobile in the German rail company's Touch&Travel NFC ticketing project, as it heads towards a major expansion of the pilot testing area and a future nationwide commercial launch. More
June 16th, 2009
Paris transport operators to launch NFC ticketing from the end of 2010
From the end of next year passengers on the Paris Metro, local trains and the region's buses will begin to be able to buy their tickets and get them validated using an NFC phone. More
June 1st, 2009
Nice to become France’s NFC City
The city council has won funding from the French government for a 'pre-commercial' NFC test in partnership with three mobile operators plus transport operator Veolia and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. More
April 27th, 2009
First commercial NFC service launched in Malaysia
The new Maxis FastTap service lets customers use Nokia NFC phones to make Visa PayWave contactless transactions and pay for tolls, transit, parking and theme park charges. More
April 24th, 2009
Air France tests NFC boarding passes at Nice airport
Frequent flyers can use NFC phones or stickers to get an electronic boarding pass and collect loyalty points. More
April 24th, 2009
Telecom Italia and ATM to launch NFC ticketing service in Milan
Trials will take place during the second half of 2009 with a commercial launch due in early 2010. More
April 24th, 2009
Swiss operators form working group to promote NFC payments
Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom have formed a working group, open to all, with the aim of developing a standardised, national NFC platform from early 2010. More
March 19th, 2009
Mobilkom Austria customers to use NFC tags to access WAP pages
The mobile operator has put together a combined NFC handset/NFC tag package for customers that uses the tags to access WAP pages, including an option to buy ÖBB rail tickets. More
March 19th, 2009
Cubic to offer NFC upgrade capability to major transit systems
Transit ticketing supplier Cubic has partnered with Vivotech to offer its customers, who include the transit operators for London, Washington and New York/New Jersey, the ability to upgrade their ticketing systems to accept payment via contactless cards and NFC phones. More
February 25th, 2009
Singapore to get national trusted third party for NFC
Singapore's banks, telecoms networks and transit operators have given the go ahead for the creation of a national trusted third party designed to ensure full interoperability between the NFC services of all mobile operators and all service providers. More
February 24th, 2009
Telefónica O2 to launch multi-function NFC trial in Czech Republic
The Czech town of Pilsen is to be the site of the world's first trial of a multi-function NFC system incorporating both retail payments and Mifare transit ticketing applications. More
January 27th, 2009
Austrian mobile and rail operators develop VDV-based NFC ticketing
Mobilkom Austria and ÖBB, the federal railways group, are to field test an NFC system based on Germany's VDV contactless ticketing standard. More
January 27th, 2009
UK Department for Transport completes NFC bus ticketing trial
A small-scale test has taken place in the north-west of England which utilised mobile phones to buy bus tickets using NFC and the UK's ITSO ticketing standard. More
January 19th, 2009
Mobile and transit operators launch NFC payments system in Chongqing
China Unicom and Yucheng Transportation Card Co have jointly introduced an NFC version of Chongqing city's Yucheng Tong card that can be used to make payments on public transport, in cinemas and at shops and restaurants. More
January 19th, 2009
London Underground signals move to NFC
Transport for London's new ticketing contract will drive the switch to next generation ticketing, London Underground's managing director has confirmed. More
November 27th, 2008
Italian ski resorts to test open NFC system in Stolpan’s first trial
Tourists visiting ski resorts in the Italian Dolomites this winter will be provided with NFC-enabled phones for use in a range of applications as part of the Stolpan consortium's first field trial. Phones and terminals from multiple suppliers will be used. More
November 27th, 2008
O2 Academy music venues to provide test beds for NFC
Mobile operator O2 has signed a deal which will see eleven major music venues across the UK rebranded as an 'O2 Academy'. O2 will offer customers a series of benefits such as priority access to tickets and will use the venues to test a range of NFC-based services. More
November 20th, 2008
NXP announces Mifare4Mobile API spec, adds Mifare Plus and expands licensing deal with Renesas
Mifare4Mobile specifications will be released within months, making it easier for Mifare-based transit ticketing and other applications to be provided via a ticket holder's mobile phone. More
November 19th, 2008
Air New Zealand issues 100,000 smart stickers to frequent flyers
The airline has provided each of its most frequent domestic travellers with contactless stickers from OTI that can be attached to the back of their mobile phone and act as a permanent and reusable boarding pass. More
November 4th, 2008
Malaysia to get commercial NFC launch in January?
After a successful trial involving NFC-based retail and transit payments, Malaysia's Maxis Communications and Maybank are reported to be planning a commercial launch in January 2009 More
October 28th, 2008
TfL reports to London Assembly on future of Oyster
Transport for London now looks pretty set on its plan to replace its prepaid Oyster contactless card system with a bank-card compatible solution. Both contactless bank cards and NFC are options being considered and TfL will definitely outsource delivery of the new system to the private sector More
October 28th, 2008
Oulu, the little city with big ideas
If you've been keeping an eye on NFC you'll have noticed that a lot of innovative experimentation is taking place in the Finnish town of Oulu. And if you've been wondering why a place you've otherwise never heard of is at the forefront of testing NFC concepts, an article in Computing magazine now has the explanation you've been looking for... More
October 28th, 2008
Mobile ticketing to reach 410m users by 2013
Within five years 410 million people will be mobile ticketing users says Juniper Research. Bar code reading issues, lack of reader infrastructure and the availability of NFC handsets means that most of the forecast users will be using their phone to store a ticket they bought elsewhere rather than using their phone to make the purchase. NFC will only reach its tipping point in 2011-2013... More
Editor's picks
- China Mobile begins commercial rollout of mobile contactless payments system
- Visa Europe to invest €200m in development of contactless payments by card and mobile
- Discover reveals the results of its mobile sticker trial
- One of the players must take on the risk before NFC can succeed, says founder of Japanese mobile wallet
- Banks and mobile operators to go head to head for NFC mobile payments business
- Apple Grab & Go patent details how the iPhone could use NFC
New York’s MTA to accept contactless bank cards for bus and subway fare payments
September 28th, 2009
