An alliance has been forged with the ambitious aim of developing a global mobile payment standard for all public transport tickets.
It plans to establish a single application enabling all users, wherever they are, to verify payment with a tap of a Near Field Communications (NFC) powered mobile device.
The Open Mobile Ticketing Alliance (OMTA) comprises transport service providers Scheidt & Bachmann and Thales, mobile payment firm Verifone Mobile Money and Nokia backed navigation and mapping solutions company HERE, which plan to start product trials later this year with transit agencies in various cities.
"The aim of the Open Mobile Ticketing Alliance is to enable the vision of ‘register once, travel anywhere’ by developing open, interoperable standards with payment vendors and transit operators," said Justus Brown, head of urban mobility at HERE, who is also OMTA chairman.
"Instead of buying a ticket or reloading an electronic card, passengers will register with the service once and then they can tap phones enabled with NFC technology at transit systems around the globe in order to travel."
"Mobile ticketing on a worldwide scale has the potential to increase the use of mass transit. With urban populations growing rapidly, public transportation will play an increasingly important role in reducing emissions and boosting economic growth," Brown added.
A report last month estimates shipments of NFC-equipped mobile devices would increase from 444 million in 2014 to 756 million in 2015, and up to 2.2 billion by 2020.
