Near field communication (NFC) contactless payments debuted in the
UK amid much publicity, including the Royal Bank of Scotland’s
co-sponsored Formula One team making the first contactless payment
at a McDonald’s restaurant in London in late August and MasterCard
covering London’s Millennium Bridge in images of coins and
notes.

Less attention-grabbing was Telekom Austria Group’s (ATG) launch in
early September of contactless payments in a national roll-out the
company said was the “world’s largest and most comprehensive
commercial package of near field communication”.

Spearheading ATG’s contactless payments initiative is its Austrian
mobile phone service unit mobilkom in partnership with mobile phone
manufacturer Nokia, Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB – Austrian
Federal Railways), Wiener Linien (Vienna’s main public transport
provider), and Netherlands-based semiconductor manufacturer and
software developer NXP Semiconductors. Unlike the card-based system
being implemented in the UK, ATG’s is fully integrated into a
mobile phone, the Nokia 6131 NFC.

“During the first phase of the roll-out we will be using NFC to
make already successful services such as transport tickets even
faster and more convenient,” said mobilkom’s chief marketing
officer, Hannes Ametsreiter.

ÖBB Personenverkehr (passenger services) chairman Stefan Wehinger
explained that the new payment service enables a passenger to hold
a mobile phone against an NFC touchpoint located on the platform,
type in the destination and send off the short message service
(SMS) text, and seconds later the ticket arrives on the mobile
phone.

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SMS tickets have become very popular with customers of ÖBB and
Wiener Linien since they were introduced, noted mobilkom. With this
service, passengers send an SMS text to ÖBB that charges the cost
of the ticket to the passenger’s mobile phone account.

“For us, NFC represents the missing link between the traditional
ticket and the SMS ticket,” said Wiener Linien’s MD, Michael
Lichtenegger. “The NFC ticket now makes it possible for the first
time to validate a virtual ticket, quite clearly showing details of
time and place.”

According to mobilkom, it is the largest of Austria’s eight mobile
service providers and holds a market share of 38 percent.