Mobile Phones As Train Tickets

France's Bouygues Telecom says that it is testing a travel card integrated into a mobile phone in a trial covering the entire Paris mass transit authority (RATP) and Transilien SNCF suburban transit network in the Paris region. This new and innovative use of contactless technology could come into widespread use in the near future.

Tests carried out by Bouygues Telecom and the RATP between July and October have already validated many technical aspects. Transilien SNCF has decided to join in the next phase of the trial, which will involve some 100 test customers over a three-month period. Using contactless mobile technology, this phase aims to test mobile phone travel cards in daily use in the transport network. The first practical application of contactless technology, the mobile phone travel card paves the way for the new mobile services of the future.

The mobile phone becomes a travel card

With 15,000 contactless readers and almost 2 million Navigo travel card holders, the Paris region transit system has the most extensive contactless infrastructure in Europe. This high equipment rate is a major advantage for rapid roll-out of the new contactless mobile service.

The experiment is the fruit of a cooperative venture with Gemalto for the SIM cards, NEC for the mobile handsets and Inside Contactless for the Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless components."

Posted to the site on 20th November 2006