Mobilkom Austria has developed an NFC service, working alongside the railway operator ÖBB. Cellular News has the details:
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.
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.
You might remember I reported on a similar system developed in the UK, between a number of parties, including Nokia, O2, London Underground, and Barclays. In the “O2 wallet” trial, users carried an NFC-equipped Nokia 6131 mobile, which was able to make payments much as an Oyster card (season pass for London Underground) would do. It was also able to make retail payments using “Barclaycard Visa payWave” in certain stores – and all via the magic of contactless (NFC) technology.
Note the common denominator here – Nokia!
[Via: Cellular News]