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NFC exemples

In spring 2010, for example, the French city of Nice began a pre-commercial test involving 3,000 users. Volunteers can use their cellphones to pay for tram and bus tickets, find information on routes and times and access other services relating to local museums and cultural events. The French government is providing seed funding for the project, which will see Nice become a reference city for further rollouts across the rest of France, where there have already been 20-odd trials during the past two years. The Nice initiative is being led by the city council, and other participants include bus and tram operator Veolia Transport, mobile operators Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bahn in Germany plans to extend its Touch&Travel pilot scheme, run in conjunction with Telefónica O2 Germany, Vodafone and T-Mobile. The program, which began in February 2008, previously included about 2,500 passengers travelling around and between major cities such as Berlin, Hanover and Frankfurt. As of January, that figure rose by 3,000 with the addition of customers in the Ruhr area, and the service is expected to be launched commercially in 2011.

NFC-based schemes such as these all work in the same way. Customers download a software application onto their phone and can then use the wallet interface to buy tickets or top up them up, either from the phone itself over a GSM mobile network or by accessing their service provider’s website. This means that they no longer need to wait in line to make a transaction, and they can also check their balance, view their transaction history and check routes and times from their phone at any time.

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NFC exemples

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