Masha Borak of TechNode reports that the Beijing Metro has begun promoting the use of mobile payments on the Fangshan Line which runs through the south of the city. As Borak notes, Beijing has beaten New York, where local authorities plan to introduce NFC-enabled subway payments by 2018.
“The lack of NFC technology on most smartphones was the reason why mobile payments at subway stations haven’t caught on earlier even though Beijing Metro installed NFC readers that accept mobile phone payments back in 2013,” Borak explains. “Luckily, mobile phone manufacturers have been putting out more and more NFC-enabled phones on the market. Samsung, Huawei, Nubia, Meizu and 160 other brands now support mobile payments through NFC. Other mobile phone users can opt to replace their SIM card with an NFC-enabled one.”
As Mo Hong’e of Ecns.cn reports, Beijing’s subway card – Yikatong – hit the streets in 2006 and can also be used on buses and even in some shops.
“…The explosion of different uses for smartphones has seen transport authorities in the capital launch a mobile version of the card which can be integrated into commuters’ cellphones,” Hong’e says. “[This means] subway travelers in the Chinese capital with NFC-enabled phones can leave their physical travel card at home and use their smartphone instead.”
With ridership significantly expanding in major cities around the globe, transaction speed and customer satisfaction have never been more important. This is precisely why various transport systems are steadily replacing paper tickets and tokens with smart cards and contactless payment cards, as well as mobile apps that allow passengers to use their smartphones to conveniently board buses, trains and ferries. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are currently multiple ‘smart’ options available for transport operators seeking to modernize their fare systems, including solutions based on barcodes, smart cards, EMV bank cards and HCE mobile apps.
Essentially, host card emulation (HCE) for mobile ticketing is a software architecture that emulates a traditional tamper-resistant smart card on NFC-enabled smartphones. Put simply, HCE enables smartphones to act as a virtual representation of a contactless, transport smart card. This allows customers to securely use their smartphones as both a travel smart card and virtual ticket wallet. In the mobile payments industry, HCE provides a bridge between the cardholder, the point-of-sale (POS) and the service provider, such as an issuing bank. In the transport arena, a similar analogy applies between a passenger (the customer), the gate (at the railway station) and the transport operator.
HCE enables operators to offer digital travel wallets to passengers without the lead production time associated with plastic cards. Once an HCE mobile transport app is downloaded, the passenger simply completes a brief registration process and is good to go. In addition, HCE offers new ticket acquiring and provisioning capabilities for transport operators. For example, the smartphone expands ticket purchase options beyond ticket vending machines (TVM), self-service kiosks and manned point of sales.
