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| Subject: The Swiss are going further with ‘Easyride’. This, the most ambitious scheme in the world, aims to have a single contactless smartcard giving access to the entire public transport network – including the mainline rail network – in place by 2006. | |
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Author: May 2002 In Hong Kong you can already pay for your rail travel with, er, your watch. The smartcard revolution is on its way, bringing with it the option of cash-free travel. |
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Date Posted: Sunday, May 04, 03:34:26am In reply to: extending to Nokia mobile phones. 's message, "Hong Kong's Octopus smart card/contactless/fare payments" on Wednesday, February 05, 04:18:27am Smartcards: A revolution in waiting ----------------------------------------------------------- In Hong Kong you can already pay for your rail travel with, er, your watch. The smartcard revolution is on its way, bringing with it the option of cash-free travel. ----------------------------------------------------------- By the end of 1999 there were over 1.4 billion smartcards in use around the world, with transport and banking seen as the two areas for major expansion. Their impact so far on the travelling public has been at the margins but that will soon change as transit system after transit system goes from traditional paper-based tickets to smartcards. ----------------------------------------------------------- Essentially, a smartcard is a piece of plastic, usually credit card sized, containing an electronic microprocessor. The microprocessor makes the card fundamentally different from a simple magnetic strip card, as despite its smaller size it has the processing power of a small computer. Smartcards can be ‘contact’ or ‘contactless’. In contact form the smartcard needs to be physically passed through a ‘reader’ before a transaction can take place. Contactless cards need to be passed over a reader but with some systems this can be done at a distance, so a passenger can use a card to access public transport services without even having to take the card out of their pocket. ----------------------------------------------------------- The chief advantages for users is the convenience of being able to travel without carrying cash. Potential disadvantages include the need for access to readers to confirm how much credit a smartcard is carrying, and the potential for some users to lose out due to the ease with which operators can change fare levels and structures. ----------------------------------------------------------- The biggest, established public transport smartcard scheme in the world is ‘Octopus’ in Hong Kong. In 1994 Hong Kong’s five largest privately owned public transport operators (including providers of ferry, rail and bus services) agreed the scheme, which was up and running by 1997. As many as 7.9 million smartcards have now been issued (one for every person). Eighty per cent of items bought from vending machines are now paid for with Octopus and 90 per cent of station car park payments are made with it. ----------------------------------------------------------- Other major city transit systems are in the process of following Hong Kong’s lead, including Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Singapore, Rome and San Francisco. In London the £1 billion Prestige smartcard scheme is underway with the introduction of contactless smartcards from August 2002 for use on all London’s buses and tubes. The smartcards will always select the cheapest fare available and when a number of journeys are made will cap the fare at the one-day travelcard or one-day bus pass. It’s not just big city transit systems that are going smartcard: national rail networks and even entire national public transport networks are going smartcard. In the Netherlands plans are well advanced for a national public transport smartcard for use on all bus and tram services. The Swiss are going further with ‘Easyride’. This, the most ambitious scheme in the world, aims to have a single contactless smartcard giving access to the entire public transport network – including the mainline rail network – in place by 2006. ----------------------------------------------------------- But fares payment is the only the start of the smartcard revolution. Smartcards can be programmed to pay for other services and goods: in effect a smartcard can be an ‘e-purse’ capable of paying for everything from fast food to road toll charges. It’s already happening in Hong Kong where Octopus cards can be used to pay for everything from public swimming pools to coffee at Starbucks. ----------------------------------------------------------- And there’s no reason why the smartcard microchip even needs to be on a plastic card: it can be built into watches or jewellery. Alternatively the smartcard that many of us already carry – the simcard on a mobilephone – can take on the function of a public transport smartcard. Not only could the phone act as a ticket, it could also provide personalised travel information, for example on late running connections for the journey being made. Smartcards could also soon be loaded with value and information from home, either via attaching a smartcard reader to a home PC or digital television sets. ----------------------------------------------------------- Once again Hong Kong is leading the way, where for US$32 smartcard watches are now on sale. By waving your wristwatch over the reader the watch gives you access to the public transport network. A huge 200,000 smartcard watches are now on order and the plan is to extend their capability to include payment for station vending machines and photobooths. ----------------------------------------------------------- The potential of the technology is not in doubt. What can’t be known is exactly how fast and far-reaching the smartcard revolution will be. But overall it looks like before long the railway ticket will be an endangered species. ----------------------------------------------------------- This feature appears in Platform Bulletin 7 published in May 2002 and available free to members of Platform. ----------------------------------------------------------- [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| to manufacture and personalise Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) smartcards for Visa in Malaysia. 21/4/03 | Chip personalisation for Visa membersKUALA LUMPUR: VISA International said it has certified Gemcard Sdn Bhd | Tuesday, May 06, 03:31:21am |