Telekom Austria Group today announced that its mobile subsidiary, mobilkom austria, has developed – in cooperation with ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways Group) – the 'first' chip-based end-to-end NFC solution for mobile ticketing in pre-selling conditions.
The new chip-based NFC application is based on the interoperable and high-security international standard VDV-KA (Association of German Transport Undertakings – Core Application) and has been integrated into the mobilkom austria mobile ticketing platform. As this new generation NFC mobile ticketing solution offers enhanced user-friendliness and convenience for both passengers and ticket collectors when buying and managing train tickets, mobilkom austria and ÖBB embarked on a pilot project to test it with the support of Nokia.
Hannes Ametsreiter, CMO mobilkom austria und CEO Telekom Austria TA AG, 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 AG.
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.
Nokia is the only handset supplier which has been able to commercially launch NFC-capable handsets to date. The new Nokia 6212 classic will be commercially available starting from February 2009, and mobilkom austria will be the first mobile operator to offer this phone in Austria. In the initial stage, the Nokia 6212 classic will not be equipped with the new chip-based NFC application developed by mobilkom austria as this solution is still in a trial phase.