This week’s post is from guest blogger Ian Atherfold, Ecebs Sales Director who attended Cartes 2012 Exhibition & Conference last week.
Smart Solutions for Security, Payment, Identification and Mobility
Held at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre just north of Paris.
CARTES is considered to be the global reference in the smart card and identification sector, a world event not to be missed. This show is a special meeting place for all those involved in digital security, smart technologies, payment, contactless technology and mobility. Highlighted issues included:
• A Bright Future for Smart Cities
• Spotlight on issues that will shape the interconnected commerce and mobile payments of tomorrow
• The Electronic Wallet – at the heart of the Mobile Payment Challenge
• Key Themes 2012 – Mobile Payment and Security in the Cloud
For me the show highlighted the convergence of Payment and Transport solutions across the globe. The opportunity to meet with clients and partners was excellent and to progress discussions we are having in this space with interested stakeholders. NFC featured heavily in the show with reputedly 100 million handsets delivered during 2012 and double this number forecast for 2013. Some 26% of NFC enabled devices are forecast to have a ticket application downloaded by 2017. Our remote ticket download solution (Paragon RTD) that provides for a ticket to be downloaded using NFC was well received.
Rambus Ecebs, as a member of the OSPT Alliance was pleased to see the level of attendance and interest at the workshop and also the progress that has been made towards open standards for secure fare collection (CIPURSE). The benefits this brings to Operators, Government Agencies, Transit Operators, Consultants and Integrators allows for the adoption of new technology and keeps pace with today’s demanding 21st Century Public transit users. Increasing security and reducing costs, what’s not to like!