SINGAPORE: Following the conclusion of a joint trial to study the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to pay for public transport, compatible mobile phones can now be used to do just that.
With the new NFC SIM card, certain mobile devices can be used for payments on MRT, LRT and public buses, as well as at more than 30,000 ez-link acceptance points across the island, according to a joint press release by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and EZ-Link on Tuesday (Mar 29).
Users need to turn on the NFC function on their mobile phones to make payments and top up the purse, as they would with an ez-link card. Users can also check their ez-link purse balance, transaction history, and top-up value using the EZ-Link mobile application, the press release added.
The compatible NFC-enabled mobile phones include:
"We have been testing various innovative fare payment systems, and bringing these NFC SIMs and mobile phone models into the public transit ticketing environment bears fruit to LTA's on-going efforts to leverage on technology to bring greater convenience to commuters through new and convenient ways to pay for travel," said LTA Chief Executive Chew Men Leong.
The launch of the service follows the encouraging results from the joint trial, which ended in February 2016. Commencing in August 2014 with rail services and extended to buses in September 2015, the trial involved the testing of 15 NFC-enabled mobile phone models with the new NFC SIM, recording more than 30,000 transactions by 1,000 users.
The EZ-Link NFC SIM will be gradually made available to the public from Tuesday. For availability and pricing, please contact the respective mobile network operators, the release said.
LOCAL TELCOS TO OFFER NFC SIM CARDS
M1 and EZ-Link said in a separate release on Tuesday that the telco will be the first to allow its customers to pay using NFC. Starting from Tuesday, subscribers can swap their existing SIM cards to the NFC SIM, which will cost S$37.45, while those who sign up from Wednesday to Apr 30 will have their activation fee of S$9.10 waived.
The other two telcos have also issued press releases regarding their NFC SIM cards. Starhub said its NFC Transit SIM will cost S$37.45, or $26.75 for a SIM replacement, from Apr 2. The NFC ez-link purse fee of S$5 is also waived until further notice, it added.
Singtel subscribers, meanwhile, will be able to purchase the NFC SIM cards from its retail shops at prevailing SIM rates with no additional costs from late April. The usual S$5 EZ-Link registration fee will also be waived "for a limited time", the telco said.
Source: NFC-enabled smartphones can be used to pay for transport, food
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