Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest network operator with over 70 million subscribers is to deploy Gemalto’s UpTeq NFC high-end SIM cards for a mobile phone-based public transport ticketing solution in the city of Novosibirsk.
Operated alongside Zolotaya Korona, a Russian payment and money transfer system, the ticketing service allows users to pay for journeys on buses and the metro in Novosibirsk, the country’s third-largest city, simply by tapping their mobile phone on an NFC reader.
For optimum convenience, users will be charged for journeys via their regular MTS billing scheme. Over 95% of public transport turnstiles and terminals in Novosibirsk are already equipped with NFC readers and the new system is designed to replace the current paper tickets.
“Will 2013 be the year of NFC? My response is yes, it is. We have reached a point of no return, from where NFC will be included within companies’ products, apps and services. The installed base will grow to half a billion devices and beyond. That provides you and me with an increasing variety of things to tap our phones with,” comments John Devlin, principal analyst with ABI Research.
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