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BART
Riders Embrace Paying with Mobile Phones –
NFC Trial a Success
Mobile
Payments Trial Shows High Transit and Retail Usage
OAKLAND,
Calif. – Oct. 6, 2008 – Earlier this year a
select group of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
riders took part in a first-in-the-nation trial to pay for their
fares and food, receive discounts and check account balances using
just their new mobile phone containing a contactless chip that enables
transactions without a traditional plastic card. BART, First Data
and ViVOtech today released the results of the trial conducted in
the San Francisco area from Jan. 28 to May 30, 2008, which demonstrate
high use when both transit fare and retail payments are combined
in the same phone.
The
results show that BART riders who took part in the trial extensively
used their contactless, Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled phones
to pay for their BART fares and meals at participating Jack in the
Box restaurants. The results also show that participants at BART
stations frequently tapped smart advertisements in BART stations
with their NFC phones. These posters contained directions to nearby
Jack in the Box restaurants.
The data shows that trial participants took close
to 9,000 trips on BART during the trial. To pay at BART stations,
they simply tapped their NFC-equipped mobile phones, provided by
Sprint, on top of the BART fare gates (see BARTtv news story about
the trial at www.BART.gov/BARTtv). This represents an average of
50 trips per participant during the four-month trial. Participants
also topped-up their BART card balances more than 800 times using
the over-the-air (OTA) feature of their NFC-equipped phones averaging
five BART top-ups per mobile phone during the trial.More than 80%
of trial participants indicated that the mobile wallet application
was easy to use.
"We're very excited that our trial was so
successful," BART's longest serving board member, James Fang,
said. "NFC devices are all the rage in Asia, and if all goes
well, millions of Americans will have access to these NFC-enabled
phones starting in two years. With so many people turning to transit
to avoid the ever-skyrocketing price of gas, we must do everything
we can to break down the barriers that stand in the way of them
using BART. The NFC-enabled phone simplifies their lives because
they never need to dig for a BART ticket again, and they can bypass
those fumbling for change at the ticket machine, and instead, go
directly through the faregates - knowing they always have the correct
fare on their phones."
Another value of this trial was to test the combination
of transit and Jack in the Box meal purchases using the mobile phones
as well as to drive traffic to merchants using NFC-enabled smart
posters. During the trial, participants tapped their phones several
hundred times on smart posters located throughout the BART terminal
to obtain directions to the nearest Jack in the Box restaurant from
the BART station.
“The success of this trial truly demonstrates
the future of mobile commerce – the ability to see account
balances, make payments and participate in marketing programs from
an NFC enabled phone,” said Barry McCarthy, president, First
Data Mobile Commerce Solutions. “For the first time, multiple
payment accounts co-existed on the same mobile phone. The program
clearly highlighted how First Data assets in the physical world
can be enhanced to deliver value-added services in the mobile commerce
arena. Mobility will play a big role in the future of commerce,
and First Data is working to leverage its market and thought leadership
to drive mobile commerce adoption broadly.”
“The BART trial results show that transit
payment is a killer application for NFC mobile phones providing
convenience and speed to customers who take transit and other public
transportation frequently,” said Michael Mullagh, ViVOtech
CEO. “We are also encouraged to see that merchant card payments
and opt-in smart poster applications enabled by ViVOtech software
through the same NFC mobile phone were also highly used by the trial
participants.”
ViVOtech developed the wallet software for the
NFC mobile phones and the OTA card provisioning servers that Sprint
used for the trial. This enabled participants to remotely download
their BART fare and Jack Ca$h™ gift cards onto their mobile
phones, check their card balances, review previous transactions,
automatically top up their cards and use their phones to pay for
BART fares and Jack in the Box food. ViVOtech also provided the
contactless payment devices that read the NFC-enabled chips at Jack
in the Box restaurants.
About
the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
This year the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
is the nation’s 5th largest all-rail transit agency. BART's
mission is to provide safe, reliable and affordable transportation
to the more than 103 million passengers that it carries each year
through four counties and 26 cities in the greater San Francisco
Bay Area. For more information about BART, visit www.bart.gov.
About
First Data
First
Data is a global technology leader in information commerce. The
company processes transaction data of all kinds, harnesses the power
of that data and delivers innovations in secure infrastructure,
intelligence and insight for its customers. With operations in 37
countries, First Data serves more than 5.4 million merchant locations
and more than 2,000 card issuers and their customers. It powers
the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people
and businesses around the world to buy goods and services using
virtually any form of payment. The company’s portfolio of
services and solutions includes merchant transaction processing
services; credit, debit, private-label, gift, payroll and other
prepaid card offerings; fraud protection and authentication solutions;
electronic check acceptance services through TeleCheck; as well
as Internet commerce and mobile payment solutions. The company’s
STAR Network offers PIN-secured debit acceptance at 2.1 million
ATM and retail locations. Through First Data’s centers of
excellence, such as security, analytics, customer loyalty and mobile
payments, it offers data-driven commerce solutions for customers
around the globe. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.
About
ViVOtech
ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com) is the market leader
in near field communication (NFC) mobile payments, promotions and
Over-the-Air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, transaction
management software, NFC smart posters, and contactless terminals.
These innovative solutions allow millions of consumers to make contactless
payments with radio frequency-enabled credit/debit cards, fobs and
NFC mobile phones. ViVOtech’s products are used by the most
prominent retailers all over the globe and today the company has
shipped over 450,000 contactless terminals to more than 33 countries
worldwide. In 2008, ViVOtech has been named #1 in ABI Research’s
Contactless & NFC Reader Ranking Report. ViVOtech was also recognized
as Top Contactless Payment Technology Vendor in Aberdeen Group’s
“Retail Contactless Payment Report.” ViVOtech has received
strategic investments from First Data Corporation, a leading provider
of electronic and payment solutions for businesses worldwide, Citi,
the leading global financial services company, NCR Corporation,
a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger
relationship with their customers and Motorola, known globally for
innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications
Editorial
Contact:
Kristin Miller
SS|PR representing ViVOtech, Inc.
kmiller@sspr.com
(719) 634-8292
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