NFC And Contactless Mobile Projects

Strasbourg

France: Bank and Telcos Hold Early Test of SIM-Based EMV Payment
MasterCard’s PayPass payment application was preloaded on SIM cards. At the time of the launch, it was the first NFC trial with a payment...

Tampere

Finland: Small Bus Trial Tests Value Loads
The two-month trial involved just 20 students and employees of TeliaSonera and the city of Tampere.

Wels

Austria: Merchants Tap Phones To Activate and Redeem Gift Vouchers
The project, aimed at merchants in the historic center of the northern Austrian town of Wels, embeds RFID chips in paper gift vouchers and...

Edinburgh

UK: RBS Tests Contactless Debit at HQ
RBS ran a small trial among employees at its Edinburgh headquarters using a PayPass debit application. The trial was to last just a couple...

Boston

U.S: Tiny Trial Tests Transit Ticketing
The roughly five-month small trial enabled internal users to tap their phones to pay with the Mifare-based CharlieCard transit ticketing...

Wilmington

U.S.: Internal Trial Attempts PayPass Downloads
This internal trial at BofA unit MBNA lasted until March 2007 and was one of the first to attempt over-the-air downloads of a payment...

São Paulo, Brasília

Brazil: Claro and Two Banks Test PayWave
Bank credit cardholders were to be able to make purchases of up to BRL100 (US$55.44) by tapping their phones. It was unclear whether the...

Sondrio, Chiavenna, Morbegno and two other cities

Italian Bank Launches First V Pay Debit Trial
The employee trial by Credito Valtellinese is the first to put a contactless version of V Pay, Visa Europe’s debit application, on an NFC...

Bucharest

Romania: Dutch Bank Tests Prepaid Payment
The seven-month trial was one of the first enabling users to top-up value of their contactless MasterCard Maestro prepaid accounts over...

Rochester, Indiana

U.S.: Fast-food Chain Tests Contactless Loyalty Stickers
Franchise owners of four locations of the Dairy Queen ice cream and fast-food chain–mainly in the Indiana home base of the loyalty system...

HEADLINE NEWS

Australian Transit Agency to Launch Mobility-as-a-Service Trial as It Pursues Long-Term MaaS Strategy

Plans by Transport for New South Wales, Australia’s largest transit agency, to launch a trial enabling users to plan, book and pay for multimodal rides is the next step toward the agency’s long-ter

Updated: U.S. Transit Agency Seeks to Reduce–Though Not Eliminate–Cash Acceptance with New Fare-Collection System

Updated: The Spokane Transit Authority in Washington state confirmed that its new fare-collection system will include contactless open-loop payments–with a beta test planned for next October, a spokesman told NFC Times' sister publication Mobility Payments.

UK Government Seeks to Bring London-Style Contactless Fare Payments System to Other Regions

The UK government’s plan to equip 700 rail stations over the next three years to accept contactless open-loop payments is a major initiative, as it seeks to replicate the success of London’s contactless pay-as-you go fare payments system elsewhere in the country–a goal that has proved elusive in the past.

More Cities in Finland Expected to Move to Open-Loop Fare Payments

A fourth city in Finland is beginning to roll out contactless open-loop payments, with “more in the pipeline,” according to one supplier on the project, making the Nordic country one of the latest hotspots for the technology.

Moscow Metro Expands Test of ‘Virtual Troika’ in Pays Wallets, as It Continues to Develop Digital-Payments Services

Moscow Metro is recruiting more users to test its “Virtual Troika” card in two NFC wallets, those supporting Google Pay and Samsung Pay, as one of the world’s largest subway operators continues to seek more ways for its customers to pay for rides.

Ohio Transit Agency Expects Significant Revenue Loss as it Builds Equity with Fare Capping

The Central Ohio Transit Authority, or COTA, officially launched its new digital-payments service Monday, including a fare-capping feature that the agency estimates will cost it $1.8 million per year in lost fare revenue, the agency confirmed to Mobility Payments.

Special Report: Interest Grows in ‘White-Label EMV’ for Closed-Loop Transit Cards

As more transit agencies introduce open-loop fare payments, interest is starting to grow in use of white-label EMV cards that agencies can issue in place of proprietary closed-loop cards for riders who don’t have bank cards or don’t want to use them to pay fares.

Swedish Transit Agency Launches Express Mode Feature for Apple Pay, though Most Ticketing Still with Barcode-Based App

Skånetrafiken, the transit agency serving one of Sweden’s largest counties, announced today it has expanded its contactless open-loop payments service to include the Express Mode feature for Apple Pay.

Major Bus Operators in Hong Kong Now Accepting Open-Loop Payments–Adding More Competition for Octopus

Two more bus operators in Hong Kong on Saturday launched acceptance of open-loop contactless fare payments, with both also accepting QR code-based mobile ticketing–as the near ubiquitous closed-loop Octopus card continues to see more competition.

Moscow Metro Launches Full Rollout of ‘Face Pay;’ Largest Biometric Payments Service of Its Kind

Touting it as the largest rollout of biometric payments in the world, Moscow Metro launched its high-profile “Face Pay” service Friday, as expected, and predicted that 10% to 15% would regularly us

Indonesian Capital Seeks to Expand to Multimodal Fare Collection and MaaS

Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, whose metropolitan area is home to more than 30 million people, is notorious for its stifling traffic congestion. In response, the government metro and light-rail networks and now it is funding an expansion of the fare-collection system to enable more multimodal payments and to build a mobility-as-a-service platform.

Exclusive: NFC Wallets Grow as Share of Contactless Fare Payments and Not Only Because of Covid

Transit agencies that have rolled out open-loop contactless payments are seeing growing use of NFC wallets to pay fares, as Covid-wary passengers see convenience in tapping their phones or wearables to pay.