Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council announced

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Smart Card Alliance announced transit agencies across the United States are in the beginning stages of upgrading fare collection systems. The Transportation Council, made up of representatives including ACS, A Xerox Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cubic, The Garback Group, Giesecke & Devrient, INSIDE Contactless, JPMorgan Chase and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, has produced white papers to instruct transit agencies how to effectively make changes.

The first white paper illustrates the planning, cost analysis, and implementation of a new fare payment system or the upgrading an existing system.


Additionally, it provides a Microsoft Excel-based cost model that presents a cost comparison between prior payment and collection and proposed payment and collection with the new system. The second white paper presents the benefits of using prepaid cards as one element of a fare collection system.

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council is made up of more than 130 individuals from 59 organizations, including transit agencies, payment brands, financial services providers and technology and service providers. [end] 

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has published a white paper examining how the transit industry can best make use of NFC technology.

“One of the major challenges facing transit agencies today is how to capitalize on the ever-growing popularity of mobile phones with a solid mobile strategy,” said Transportation Council Chairman Craig Roberts. “This white paper builds on the knowledge base developed in earlier white papers to foster a greater understanding of NFC technology, explain its role in the transit industry, and shed light on key issues facing the transit industry in developing a mobile strategy.”

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Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile operator, has announced the launch of a SIM-based NFC road toll payment application on the Turkcell T11 smart phone.

Developed in collaboration with Bank Asya, the app allows users to migrate their plastic KGS toll payment cards onto their T11 smart phone to pay for fares when crossing bridges and freeway turnpikes.

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Cubic Transportation Systems, distributor of the electronic transit Clipper card, has responded to the recent news of a Ph.D. student in IT Security allegedly breaking the encryption in Clipper and similar transit cards.

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Blackpool, a seaside town situated along England’s west coast, has installed a number of Parkeon contactless-enabled parking pay stations.

For the installation, Blackpool Council opted for the Parkeon Strada pay station terminal. This new, solar-powered terminal is equipped with contactless card readers, accepting contactless payment-enabled mobile phones and various wave and pay bank cards.

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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has introduced a series of educational resources on open payments solutions in public transit systems, including a white paper, Web resources and LinkedIn group for industry professionals.

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