New Zealand Moves Closer to NFC Enabled Mobile Tickets for Train Services

Published on: 26th Sep 2012

­New Zealand's Auckland Transport, Telecom and Westpac have outlined details of a mobile ticketing trial they are undertaking.

The trial, announced earlier this year, is in collaboration with Gemalto, Thales and Paymark. The six organisations have worked together to develop a virtual mobile wallet that can hold multiple cards - including a credit card and transport card.

The three partners say that the 'proof of concept', revealed at the Thales test laboratory in central Auckland today, is further evidence that mobile wallet technology will soon be a reality in New Zealand. They emphasised today's demonstration is simply the first stage of a much bigger vision, which will see mobile payments and other mobile wallet services rolled out nationally, involving multiple vendors and service providers.

Westpac Chief Information Officer Peter Fletcher, said "over the next 3-5 years, mobiles will become our customers' key banking tool for transactions, product research and other banking needs. Westpac is committed to delivering a market leading mobile proposition and the mobile wallet trial is an important step as we help Kiwis move towards a mobile banking future."

The next phase of the trial will see 30 plus participants test the new mobile wallet technology at contactless Point of Sale terminals, across Auckland Transport's network and top up their Telecom Mobile Accounts on their mobile.

The technology is expected to be available near the end of 2013.

Learnings from this next trial phase are expected to enable the collaboration partners to further build on the proof of concept and develop an even wider and more valuable mobile wallet proposition for consumers.

This mobile wallet trial is another step towards a full rollout of NFC technology within New Zealand. It comes off the back of Paymark, Telecom New Zealand, 2Degrees and Vodafone New Zealand's announcement in April 2012 of their intention to form a Trusted Services Manager (TSM), which will establish an open ecosystem for NFC-enabled New Zealand.

 

Tags: [telecom new zealand]  [nfc]  [New Zealand]