GlobalPlatform, ISO collaborate on contactless ticketing standard
07 November, 2011
category: Contactless, NFC, Transit
GlobalPlatform and the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 204 (ISO TC204) Working Group 8 (Public Transport and Emergency Services) are partnering to define technical standards that will enable transit operators to launch contactless ticketing via NFC-enabled phones and contactless payment cards.
According to GlobalPlatform, Working Group 8 (WG8) is devising a standard mechanism for integrating fare collection systems in multi-application media for the international public transit industry. Once complete, the standard will enable ticketing applications to be loaded and operated alongside other applications on media – credit/debit cards or phones – issued by non-transit partners.
As per the partnership, GlobalPlatform says they will provide WG8 with the technology necessary to provision and manage multiple applications on third party NFC and contactless media. The company will also provide WG8 with the capability to run performance assessments on third party media or tokens based on GlobalPlatform Specifications.
According to Global Platform, this second feature particularly important to transit operators because the performance of media carrying transit applications – especially transaction speeds – can “significantly impact” the success of an application.
The partners have also released a recently-approved preliminary work, “Mobile Architecture Designs Promoting Competition and Integration Across Varying Mobile Platforms,” that addresses the use of mobile applications in public transport.