French Minister of Industry Confirms Support for NFC Cities

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By Dan Balaban

Christian Estrosi, France’s minister of industry, has confirmed government support for three to five more cities to launch NFC services in France next year, following the precommercial NFC launch in Nice this spring.

Estrosi, who spoke at a conference Tuesday in Paris, has called on interested city officials and transit authorities in France to declare their intent to become one of the next tier of cities to host contactless-mobile services.

The additional cities would launch NFC sometime in 2011. Estrosi, who is also mayor of Nice, sees the additional cities as the second phase of what he hopes will be a broad deployment of NFC in France. He believes government help for up to five more cities to launch NFC will encourage other French cities to follow. That could lead to national rollouts in 2012, according to the vision.

The three to five cities are to be announced in December. Frontrunners are the cities of Caen and Strasbourg. Both have played host to multiple NFC trials in the past and city officials in both places have expressed strong interest in the technology. Officials in Bordeaux are also keen for the technology, said observers, and the city is also a favorite. Other cities mentioned are Rennes in Brittany, Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble.

Paris is also in the running, but it seems unlikely NFC will launch in the capital until 2012, although observers do expect some smaller projects in Paris next year. Key will be when STIF, the giant transit authority serving Paris and the surrounding region, acts on its plans to put its Navigo contactless ticketing application on NFC phones. A STIF representative did not attend the conference, which was co-organized by the government-funded NFC coordinating organization, Forum des Services Mobile sans Contact.

Like Nice, the three to five cities are expected to host such NFC services as contactless-mobile ticketing and related service discovery, mobile payment, and applications involving mobile tourism and health care. These services would be delivered by transit operators, banks and other service providers.

It remains to be seen how large the projects will become. In Nice, the country’s three major mobile operators, France Telecom-Orange, SFR and Bouygues, plus a mobile virtual network operator NRJ Mobile, have reportedly put only a little more than 3,000 NFC phones on sale.

That number could grow based on demand. And a representative of Orange, speaking at the conference Tuesday, confirmed the telco’s plans to sell 500,000 NFC phones in France by the end of 2011.

It’s unclear exactly what type of support the government will offer to the additional cities it selects to host the NFC services. Some funding is likely, along with indirect support.

The French government is also offering grants to some private companies for development work on NFC. Overall, the government, along with French telcos and some service providers have cast France as a leader in NFC technology. The French government also sees NFC as a promising industry for French vendors.

Thanks to NFC Times

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please seewww.consultingsmart.co.ukor email us atinfo@consultingsmart.co.uk

Is Nice the Smartest City in the World? - Part One

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By Steve Beecroft

Smart Technologies Consultant

Consulting Smart Ltd

The French city of Nice, which sits overlooking the tranquil waters of the Mediterranean Sea, was for many years an Italian dominion and became part of France in 1860. France’s fifth largest city Nice is widely believed to be one of the oldest human settlements in the world, so leading from the front and embracing change is embedded deep in the soul of the city.

This background have created a city that seeks continuous development and improvement. So the emergence of a new and innovative technology that delivers efficiencies for the local administration or provide a richer experience for citizens and visitors is almost always explored. Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) technologies are providing the city of Nice the opportunity to again look at improving the lives of the people that live and visit the city. These technologies include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and contactless Integrated Circuit (IC) chips, like those used in contactless payment cards. When coupled with a Human Interface Device (HID) such as a smart card or mobile phone, both of which are common place in a modern thriving environment, thee technologies can provide a large number of benefits to service providers and service users.

Now Nice is fast gaining a reputation of being a leader in the adoption of new technologies and could well be renamed NFC City such is its appetite to exploit the 360̊ benefits of the technology.

Amongst the Smart Technologies industry London is widely acclaimed the title holder for most technically advanced European city, however Nice is now fast catching up. The recent lull in activity in London and the UK’s seemingly reluctance to fully embrace NFC, and the increased momentum that technology is experiencing, has seen Nice overtake London. Well that is the view of many industry consultants, mostly French consultants it has to be said. Nonetheless they may well be right

Let’s explore some of the recent smart card, mobile and NFC technologies that have been deployed in and around.

Nice, Mobile Contactless City, The Multi- application Scheme

Private sector suppliers Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, Crédit Mutuel-CIC and NRJ Mobile have joined forces to offer contactless mobile payment services as part of the “Nice, mobile contactless city” project. Backed by the French government this project builds on the success for similar contactless payment rollouts in both Caen and Strasburg.

The scheme also includes a number of service providers including local transport in the form of busses and trams, banks, museums, restaurants, supermarkets and local retailers. Information dissemination services will also be available at the museum and university campus via smart posters.

Crédit Mutuel-CIC, the first French bank to launch a mobile banking service, are acting as the payment services provider, NRJ Mobile supplying the NFC enabled mobile phones and telecommunications company Orange will provide mobile services. This allows users to pay for goods and services using contactless, tap n’ go, technology in total confidence, thanks to the dedicated Trusted Services Management module that Gemalto are providing Crédit Mutuel-CIC with.

The scheme will be part of the newly created Cityzi brand name. It is based on an open platform and is governed by a set or technical specifications enabling easy participation for local service providers and retailers. Participants in the scheme can publicise the level of their involvement with a full set of marketing material including a set of Cityzi logos as follows:-

Four logos are available in all:

A logo which shows a service or a contactless mobile device is compatible with AFSCM specifications.

A 'ici Cityzi' ('Cityzi here') logo displayed prominently — in doorways and on cashtills, in the same way as card acceptance logos — in all places where Cityzi services can be used.

A target mark, to show consumers where to hold their device when interacting with a Cityzi service via a poster, billboard or other NFC-enabled object.

An icon displayed on the consumer's mobile device, allowing quick access to the list of Cityzi applications stored on the handset

The initiative is being led by Christian Estrosi, Nice City Council’s, deputy mayor, and is designed to interface with Trusted Service Partner platforms in an open environment. It also complies with the latest European Payment Council (EPC) GSMA standards and will enable the secure, over the air communications..

Whilst the Caen and Strasburg initiatives precede the Nice project they are both smart card schemes so this makes the carefully planned and well phase implemented Nice NFC project the first of its type in Europe and almost certainly the largest.

Public Transport

Veolia, the public transport operator for the Nice Côte-d'Azur urban area, and ConnecThings, location based information provider, have partnered to transform the travel experience of commuters, locals and visitors.

Again some central government funding has been made available for the development abd delivery of Veolia’s BPass+ facility which offer a method of storing and renewing a transport ticketing on an NFC phone.

Initially c3,000 residents will be able to pay for tram and bus tickets using NFC phones or via a 2D barcode.

In the second phase of this project du for launch in Summer 2010 ConnecThings are equipping around 1,500 bus and tram stops with NFC technology, allowing transport users to download travel information direct to their NFC enabled mobile phone

Cycle Rides / Walking tours

Nice is said to be the first city in the world where NFC technology will be deployed within a city area for tourist information.

An application launched earlier this year, the NFC Tour Guide of the old city centre, allows visitors to the old city to borrow one of 100 Sagem phones from tourist counters or city offices. Those that already own an NFC enabled mobile are also able to access the service via that handset Alternatively

The city have installed RFID tags with InsideContactless NFC chips to Cityzi branded signposts or walls near a number of attractions, such as museums and galleries. Tourists taking the walking tour of the old city access information about each site they visit based on the tags they wave the phones next to.

It works by the mobile phone detecting the NFC tag, and then downloads the site relevant information from the InsideContactless software running on a server, via the NFC tag. that information at each site also recommends the next site the visitor should visit and provides directions. This helps the visitor to get the most from the walking tour and promotes the old city.

There is even a facility for the visitor to leave feedback on the site or the walking tour in that form of text comments or via the old city’s Facebook site.

To generate some revenue and help fund the maintenance and replacement of the handsets, there is the opportunity for local businesses to advertise their services. By restricting the advertising to local businesses Nice is protecting its investment in regeneration and ensuring the sustainability of the scheme.

Parking

Smart Park, from Monext and VinciPark, provide a richer and more convenient parking experience by implementing cashless and contactless payment, season ticket / membership management, loyalty, GPS functionality and other value added services.

Part Two to follow with NFC developments in Air Travel, Culture, Retail, University and more

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

Contactless now at Critical Mass in UK

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By Dan Balaban

UK-based Barclays bank and its credit-card arm, Barclaycard, will have issued a total of 20 million contactless debit and credit cards by the end of 2011, predicted James McDonald, head of strategic innovation programs for Barclaycard, who said he believes there will be “many millions” of contactless transactions in the United Kingdom next year.

The bank, which is almost single-handedly driving the UK’s contactless rollout, will have issued a total of 12 million debit and credit cards by the end of this year, accounting for nearly all contactless cards on issue in the UK by year's end, McDonald said. But he expects such other British banks as Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds TSB to become more active in the rollout by next year, for a total 30 million British contactless bank cards issued by the end of 2011. Barclays and Barclaycard have issued a combined 7 million debit and credit cards since launching the rollout in September of 2007.

McDonald, speaking this week at the Contactless Cards and Payments conference in London organized by SMi, also predicted merchant acceptance would “dramatically increase” over the next 18 months. With more and more contactless cards in circulation, merchants, including big supermarket chains, are becoming interested, said McDonald, who works for Barclaycard’s merchant acquiring business.

“Those conversations (with merchants) are very different now than they were last year,” he told the conference. “We do believe large retailers will follow. There is a big tipping point coming up next year.”

But he declined to name large merchants he believes will accept contactless payment by next year.

There are about 24,000 merchant locations equipped to accept contactless payment in the UK, from dual-interface EMV cards with either a Visa payWave or MasterCard PayPass application onboard. While only a quarter of these locations are in London, they have accounted for 82% of transactions to date, McDonald said.

Most of the transactions are with small- to medium-size quick-service food chains, such as EAT, Caffè Nero and Pret A Manger. The only major chains accepting contactless so far, such as Boot’s retail pharmacies, have barely dipped their toes in the water. They are only accepting contactless on a trial basis.

He predicted supermarket chains will begin accepting late this year or early next year.

He did not name the chains, but contactless-payment backers are hoping such major chains as Tesco and Sainsbury’s take the plunge. Any adoption by the supermarkets would likely begin slowly.

McDonald said transactions overall have averaged £4.5 (US$6.75) compared with £2.50 to £3 average cash transactions, indicating consumers spend more with contactless cards. But there were only some hundreds of thousands of contactless transactions recorded in the UK in 2009 and transactions only ran into the several tens of thousands in 2008, said McDonald. They should increase to millions this year, before starting to ramp up in 2011.

He predicted by 2012, there would be more than 50 million contactless cards on issue from all banks, including Barclays' and Barclaycard's entire base of 25 million cards. There would be hundreds of millions of transactions, including some from NFC phones, with about 30% of retail outlets in the UK covered, he predicted. By comparison, in the United States, a much larger market, banks have issued more than 200 million much cheaper non-EMV contactless cards during the first five years of their rollout, which began around 2005. There are roughly 75,000 contactless merchant locations at present, or less than 2% of card-accepting merchant outlets covered. The card numbers include replacement cards.

By 2015, all the banks in UK would be issuing contactless, totaling more than 100 million cards, with billions of transactions, predicted McDonald.

The rosy projections rely in part on Transport for London accepting payment directly from EMV bank cards. That could begin on buses in London and also by bus operators in Manchester as early as next year and expand to the London Underground in 2012, said McDonald.

While not out of the realm of possibility, it is unlikely Transport for London would be accepting EMV payments, even on buses, by next year, Lauren Sager Weinstein, head of Oyster development for Transport for London, told NFC Times.

The giant transport authority wants to accept bank payment for most of the fares it now collects on 8,000 buses and on its large Underground network and other modes of transport, and a move in that direction looks promising. But the authority has not yet made a final decision, she said. If it goes ahead with the plan to accept open-loop payment of fares, buses, which charge flat fares to ride, would likely accept contactless EMV cards before the Underground, which has a more complex fare structure.

McDonald also reaffirmed Barclaycard’s intention to launch NFC-based mobile payment and related services as part of its partnership with mobile operator Orange UK. The parties have indicated they would launch before the end of the year, but McDonald did not offer a launch date.

And the bank will continue to promote contactless, said McDonald, who played the latest of Barclaycard's popular television commercials to conferees. The ad spot shows a consumer on a rollercoaster swooping through the London skyline, slowing long enough for a quick tap of his contactless Barclaycard credit card for a food purchase. The commercial and ad time cost £2 million to £3 million.

“There will be a lot more of them,” he said. “At Barclaycard, we do believe the industry will follow.”

Source article

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

Japan’s M-Payment Players Discover That Points Count

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By

Dan Balaban

Without points programs, coupons and other incentives, mass adoption of contactless-mobile payment will not happen in Japan.

That’s one of the main conclusions of a report released Monday by U.S.-based research and consulting firm Celent on Japan’s contactless-wallet rollout.

According to veteran Japan-watcher Red Gillen, author of the report, major backers of the contactless-mobile payment rollout in Japan, including dominant telco NTT DoCoMo, acknowledge they should have emphasized promotions and other reward programs a lot earlier than they did.

“Payments are a commodity; they (consumers) want points,” Gillen told NFC Times. “If it weren’t for points or promotions, adoption would be drastically lower.”

Moreover, Japanese merchants haven’t been “particularly interested in......to read the full report Click Here

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

Retailers urge UK Government to back move to reduce Debit card transaction fees

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Debit card transactions cost four times more to process than cash payments, says the UK's leading retail trade association, raising concerns that the move from cash to contactless debit cards and NFC phones will increase retailers' overheads.

Cash transactions costs UK retailers an average of 2.1p to process while a debit card payment costs 8.5p and a credit card transaction costs an average 34p, says the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

"Retailers are seriously concerned that banks plan to make the higher debit card charging regime the norm for the emerging contactless and mobile phone payment methods," says the BRC, and "if that happens, retailers would face huge increases in their costs as these new ways of paying replace cash – particularly for low value purchases."

"As part of its promised clampdown on irresponsible banking behaviour, the new Government should........to read the full article click here

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

A Plan to Kill the NYC MetroCard with Tap-and-Go Payment

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By Andrew Grossman of The Wall Street Journal

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will take a step Monday toward replacing the MetroCard with a new, tap-and-go payment system. The agency, along with MasterCard, NJ Transit and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will begin testing a system that would let bus and subway riders tap a device on a reader instead of swiping a card, much as riders in London,Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong have been doing for years. Second Avenue Sagas and AM New York have details about what the pilot, which is being offered on some bus lines and the Lexington Avenue subway.

But what’s really important here is the end goal: replacing the MetroCard by 2014. That has been a pet project of MTA Chief Executive Jay Walder, who helped implement London’s Oyster Card, which works as an all-purpose transit card. Walder repeatedly points to the 15 cents per dollar that it costs the MTA to collect fares, and says a tap-and-go card, which auto-refills from users’ bank or credit card accounts, could reduce that expense. (Walder is fond of asking people what other technology in their pocket or in their homes dates to the 1980s, which is when the MetroCard was developed.)

Walder and other backers of a contactless payment system point to numerous advantages that could come from the new devices. Buses would move faster, since riders wouldn’t have to wait for a machine to read and return their cards. Frequent riders could link the cards directly to their credit cards and refill them online, eliminating the need for frequent use of vending machines (though a version of auto-refill already exists). The MTA wouldn’t need to spend as much money maintaining magnetic card readers. And it could be integrated — as the pilot will be — with NJ Transit and the Port Authority, which runs PATH trains, meaning riders would only need one card to get around the region.

Walder has said the new cards would provide both better service for customers and save money for the MTA. But, as Second Avenue Sagas points out, the authority still has a long way to go before tap-and-go payment gets rolled out to all the area’s 468 subway stations, more 4,000-plus buses and the New Jersey commuter rail network:

“How will a program that requires online registration scale across a system of that averages five million riders a day? What will happen to riders who don’t have credit cards or don’t want to supply the MTA with their credit card info? And more importantly, will a credit card touch-and-go system be the final solution for a MetroCard replacement?”

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

How Pre-paid cashless can significantly improve your profit every year.

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Almost £30m has been left unused on Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG) for at least a year, the BBC has learned.

A total of 16.5m PAYG cards sat idle during the year from April 2009 to April 2010. The average amount on each card was £1.80.

Transport for London (TfL) says no card is deemed as expired and users can always claim the balance back.

The smart cards are used to pay for travel in London. There are plans to roll out similar schemes across the UK.

Oyster cards can be topped up for use on buses, tubes and trains across the capital.

Last year alone, 31,000 PAYG cards were issued and topped up but never subsequently used, even though they held............Click here to read the full article from the BBC News website

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies including PrePaid and other payment applications. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

Small Swiping Product Paves the Way for Mobile Credit Card Processing

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By informan

The development of a lightweight card swiper has made mobile credit card processing feasible for merchants. In addition, this gadget has also allowed the use of PayPal credit card processing to take advantage of its many advantages which include more affordable transaction costs. This tool can readily be plugged into a computer, a laptop computer, or smart phone. Consequently, bank card transactions are always possible wheresoever you are if you have your notebook computer or smart phone with you. Mobile credit card processing permits you to conduct business anyplace there is Online access by hooking up the mobile card swiping apparatus to the mobile computer or smartphone through the USB port.

With PayPal as the service company rather than the usual credit card processing businesses, apart from the benefit provided by mobile credit card processing, vendors may also take advantage of the flat rates of PayPal, which mean reduced transaction expenses. Formerly, business owners did not have an option and had to stick with the conventional card processing firms because with no swiping device, the usage of PayPal for plastic card processing meant being forced to enter the vital info manually rather than just swiping the credit card. This is not only awkward; it is additionally vulnerable to expensive mistakes. Hence, it was the introduction of the handheld swiper which provided merchants with the option of taking advantage of the lower transaction charges provided by PayPal.

An additional benefit provided by the transportable credit card swiping product is that wireless credit card processing is also possible. What this signifies is that it does not really make a difference if you are stationary or moving since you can accept payment by means of charge card at anytime and anyplace provided that there is Web access. If wireless Web access can be found, in essence, you have a point of sale system right there in your laptop computer or cell phone.

There should be one word of caution for those who are planning to use their smart phones to allow for mobile credit card processing. You will need to look at the fees that you will incur whenever you access the Internet via your cell phone. Oftentimes, they have various rates and programs and the lowest priced fee might be based upon the volume of business that you expect to handle while you’re on the go. Obviously, you can always look into the use of free Wi-Fi hot spots even though security issues will need to be resolved. However the key advantage is to be able to get more sales and increasing your income because you could accept payment at any time and anywhere.

Consulting Smart Ltd provide specialist consultancy on the design and deployment of smart card and NFC technologies. For more information on how we can help your organisation realise the full benefits please see www.consultingsmart.co.uk or email us at info@consultingsmart.co.uk

Newport Buses first in the UK to launch Smart Cards

From Newport City News

Newport Bus will revolutionise the way people catch buses from Monday, May 17 when it becomes the first bus operator in the country to launch a commercially available smart card.

The company, which operates more than 47 services throughout the city and to and from Cardiff and Cwmbran, will be the only bus operator in the UK to operate an ITSO compliant commercial smart card.

Bus operators across the UK have tried to launch a smart card system of this kind before, but without success. From conception to launch it has taken Newport Bus just four months to become the first operator to achieve this landmark goal.

The Newport Bus PASSPORT smart card will go on sale from 9am this coming Monday and will be available in weekly, monthly and annual card types. It is being supported by the Welsh Assembly Government through shared use of the systems and equipment installed as part of the concessionary fares smart card project.

Unlike paper-style bus passes the PASSPORT is a unique credit card-style photo ID, similar to a driving licence. It fits into your wallet and is a more secure and flexible pass for getting about on Newport Bus’ network. When boarding one of the company’s buses customers simply place their PASSPORT on the ticket machine next to the driver and away they go.

Next month the company will also launch Wales’ first top-up card giving customers a flexible means of using buses. Just in the same way you would top-up a mobile phone, the Newport Bus top-up card allows customers to add as little or as much journey credit as they need giving them total control over their bus needs. Perfect to store in a wallet for whenever needed, customers will be able to top up the cards from as little as £5.

Both revolutionary bus cards are part of Newport Bus’ efforts to encourage more people to use buses. Currently 7.6m people use Newport Bus to get them to their chosen destination and in the last 12 months more than 100,000 new passengers have begun using its buses.

Chris Blyth, Managing Director at Newport Transport, said: “We are delighted to be the first bus operator in the UK to launch this kind of commercially available smart card.

“If we want to encourage more people to use buses then we need to make it as convenient and flexible as possible and purchasing a ticket is a key part of this. By becoming the first bus operator in the UK to launch an ITSO compliant commercial smart card we are putting our customers in control of their journey needs.”

The Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said: “This is an important step in the development of an all Wales transport entitlement card and I am delighted that Newport Transport has made the move to smart cards.

“The Welsh Assembly Government has ensured that the back office for the concessionary fares smart card scheme has the capacity for an all Wales transport entitlement card and we welcomed the opportunity to work with Newport Transport to assist the transition to ITSO smart cards.

“ITSO enables the Welsh Assembly Government and all of the 22 local authorities to offer a more flexible transport system for our citizens, reducing costs, improving efficiency and offering travellers throughout Wales an improved travel experience.”

The launch of the PASSPORT smart card follows Newport Bus’ recent announcement of one ticket price for single fare journeys across its entire network meaning customers can travel on any service – including Newport to Cardiff – for just £1.30.

The project has been supported by the efforts of key stakeholders including: Applied Card Technology, MVA Consultancy, ESP Systex and Parkeon.

	Adult	Student	Child
Weekly PASSPORT	£12.00	£10.80	£9.60
Monthly PASSPORT	£46.80	£42.10	£37.45
Annual PASSPORT	£561.60	£505.45	£449.30

From Newport Transport