Two years after signing their Memorandum of Understanding, the five founder members of the Smart Ticketing Alliance formally launched the Alliance in Brussels to a wider audience to transport operators and industry players.
The transport smartcard operators from 10 countries gathered in Brussels to confirm their support for joining with the founders and setting the Smart Ticketing Alliance onto a formal legal footing which will lead the way towards a single transport implementation specification for NFC phones across Europe and cross border acceptance facilitating the implementation and deployment of NFC-enabled devices.
Spurred on by endorsement from the EU’s Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, the Smart Ticketing Alliance has been busy setting up Working Groups looking at the contactless interface, NFC, certification and media security.
Originally set up by the national smart ticketing organisations of UK (ITSO), Germany (VdV) and France (AFIMB) plus the Calypso Network Association and UITP, ITSO’s John Verity has been elected as its first chair. “The transport smartcard industry is very fragmented and needs a single voice across Europe, and wider, to get what we need from the latest customer smart media. We need security, we need speed and we need consistency in response from suppliers,” said Verity.
