NFC TIMES Exclusive – The mid-tier city of Vinnytsia in the Ukraine is rolling out its first transit smart cards for payment of fares on buses and trams this summer, replacing cash, which riders have used for years.
While the fact that a public transit agency is rolling out transit smart cards is not noteworthy, the contactless chip technology that Vinnytsia has adopted is–since it’s one of the few transit-ticketing projects so far using nearly 10-year-old Cipurse technology. Announced in January 2010 by vendors seeking to break the market dominance of Mifare technology from NXP Semiconductors, Cipurse has not yet caught on, although Cipurse backers say there will be many more transit projects–among other applications–to come with Cipurse.
That includes use of Cipurse by a major transit agency, Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, or ATM, in Barcelona. Cipurse, however, will be one of at least two certified technologies that the agency will use on cards and in NFC phones for its much-anticipated–but much-delayed–T-mobilitat, or T-mobility, program. The other certified technology is Mifare DESFire from NXP. And there could be others.
