Consumers in the French Mediterranean city of Nice this spring will be able to pay for low-value tickets on the city’s bus and tram network directly on their mobile phone bills as part of a planned multiapplication NFC project.
But mobile operators say they are offering the payment service for consumer convenience, not to compete with banks.
“We are only trying to facilitate, as in the past, digital content,” Bruno Prexl, spokesman for French mobile operator group Association Française du Sans Contact Mobile and m-payment marketing manager at Bouygues Telecom. “In the past, it was ringtones and Java games. Now we are downloading low-value tickets. It makes sense to have one- (or two-) click payment through the phone. And today, the only one-click solution is the mobile operators’ bill.”
