Austria Tests New NFC Based Mobile Ticketing Service

Published on: 20th January 2009

Mobilkom austria says that it has developed an NFC service in cooperation with the Austrian railway operator, ÖBB for mobile ticketing in pre-selling conditions. The new chip-based NFC application is based on the interoperable international standard VDV-KA (Association of German Transport Undertakings - Core Application) and has been integrated into the mobilkom austria mobile ticketing platform.

Hannes Ametsreiter, CMO mobilkom austria und CEO Telekom Austria, said: "With mobilkom austria's new, worldwide first chip-based NFC mobile ticketing solution, train tickets are no longer sent via text messages to the customer's handset but are saved in the so-called 'secure element' of NFC-enabled mobile phones and can be validated by a simple touch."

"Moreover, train tickets will not get lost, even if the SMS inbox of a mobile phone is purged by mistake, and they are always available, even when the phone battery has run out. In addition, tickets can be managed and validated while the customer is having a phone conversation," added Gabriele Lutter, spokesperson of the Management Board of ÖBB-Personenverkehr.

Tickets can be validated with a simple touch of the passengers' and the conductor's NFC enabled mobile phone. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to enter a SMS code to validate the transaction, considerably enhancing time efficiency.

The pilot project will involve 100 test customers and 100 ticket collectors, who will trial the new chip-based application on the test routes Vienna-Krems and Vienna-Gmünd, using the NFC-capable handset Nokia 6212 classic for three months. Feedback from test users will be used to improve future NFC services.

NFC Outlook and Future Developments

In future, information such as mobile tickets will not be stored on a chip in the mobile handset but on the chip embedded in the SIM card. This will facilitate the switch from one NFC handset to another. "The commercial availability of a SIM-based solution strongly depends on the implementation of the latest NFC standards. We expect to see such an implementation later in 2009. To provide phones with the latest standards, Nokia is working closely together with all stakeholders. This pilot is one good example of how cooperation can further convenience for the consumer," states Jeremy Belostock, Head of NFC at Nokia. The long-term objective is to develop an interoperable system allowing customers to use transport facilities of different providers across countries with one single NFC ticket.

 

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