Based on NFC (Near Fiel Communication) technology, this feature will soon enable the use of its telephone to purchase its remote transport tickets . The system is presented at Cartes and IDentification in Paris (November 17-19).
By connecting to the SNCF website , travelers will soon be able to purchase tickets, which are recorded directly on their telephone. At any time, the phone on them, passengers will know how much they still have transport tickets.
To validate their passage at the turnstiles, the public will only have to pass his telephone on the contactless terminals , as for any other pass, type Navigo. In case of control, the mobile phone serves as proof. The controller will verify the validity of the ticket by its reader.
Subsequently, SNCF plans to extend this tele-ticket service to other functionalities such as the dissemination of practical information such as schedules or routes.
Last June, Stif, the organizing authority for transport in Ile-de-France, had already unveiled a project based on the availability of Navigo chips on mobile phones.
The function will allow to buy and load a title no matter where you are . Like the Navigo today, travelers will be able to validate their ticket only with their mobile phone, passing the latter on a dedicated reader. The NFC technology, also used here, will also allow the management of its tickets.
In Ile-de-France, the validation of tickets for the metro via its mobile phone had already been tested in November 2006. In partnership with the operator Bouygues Telecom and the Nec brand, RATP had equipped about a hundred guinea pigs mobile phones carrying a contactless chip to pass on the Navigo terminals to validate their ticket.
In air transport, Air France has been testing the technology at Nice airport since last April. Equipped with an NFC phone, passengers have only to present their mobile in front of a dedicated terminal to validate their air ticket.
NFC technology has only recently been tested in France, especially for contactless payments. In Japan, the country that is ahead of the NFC, nearly one in two users has a mobile phone that allows contactless payment in stores or supermarkets.
