eAccess has recently delivered more than a million of these LU smart cards supporting both the NXP Mifare-Ultralight and Kovio-2048 integrated circuits to both U.S. and international customers. In the U.S. over the past year, eAccess delivered large orders of LU cards to LA Metro, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PATH), South Florida, San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System, and various other transit and non-transit applications.

PATH, the most recent company to implement the technology, has branded the cards as “SmartLink Gray,” which are designed to complement the full-featured plastic SmartLink smart cards. Each SmartLink Gray card includes a Limited Use NXP-Ultralight smart card circuit encoded with either a 10-Trip, 20-Trip or 40-Trip value.

Walt Bonneau, chairman of eAccess, estimates that since 2005 well over 1.5 billion Limited Use cards have been sold around the world. Europe and North America are the largest users, but there is growing adoption in Asia and South America.

“LU cards have truly been a technology/product success for transit and other industries such as access security control,” Bonneau said. “The convenience of having a secure, simple to buy and simple to use smart card media that is cost effective has not only been well received by the deploying agencies but by their patrons. On average, customers migrate from a magnetic or paper ticket to a Limited Use card within a few months of deployment. These LU deployments have been received much faster than previously introduced fare payment technology development.”