Say goodbye to cash

Cityzi subscribers can pay for tickets by swiping their mobile phones on terminals placed in buses and trams run by Lignes d'Azur

To the uninitiated, it may not be apparent that the presence of the Cityzi logo means that you can pay for goods or services using contactless technology on your mobile phone.

The Côte d’Azur is leading the way in the provision of contactless payments made by a mobile phone.

In fact, the Nice launch of commercial mobile contactless payment services - also known as near field communications (NFC) - in May 2010 represented the first major pre-commercial launch in Europe. It is now spearheading the launch of services into nine other French cities throughout 2011.

Cityzi is the brand name that has been adopted for Nice and is being promoted by the Association Française pour le Sans Contact Mobile (AFSCM). AFSCM was established in April 2008 by Bouygues Telecom, Orange France, and SFR, and now also includes service and technology providers.

It is hoped the Cityzi brand name and NFC guidelines from AFSCM will be adopted by the other French cities, and by other countries in time.

According to AFSCM, by the end of 2010 more than 3,300 mobile subscribers in Nice had acquired the only NFC handset (from Samsung) that was made available for the first Cityzi services. Orange says it accounts for around 40 per cent of this user base. AFSCM also claims that some 1,400 Nice shopkeepers now participate in the scheme, out of an estimated 9,000-10,000.

The headline Cityzi service in Nice is the BPASS Lignes d’Azur service provided by Veolia Transport, which allows Cityzi subscribers to pay for journeys by swiping their phones on terminals in buses and trams. According to Anne Bouverot, executive vice president for mobile services at Orange, about 80 per cent of customers who bought a Cityzi phone subscribed to a Cityzi pass (as of November 2010).

Brave new world

“Customers are happy and particularly like being able to use for transport,” Bouverot said. “A customer survey conducted by AFSCM members in October last year found that users considered Citzy a ‘true innovation’ - to help make people’s lives simpler. Another benefit cited by users was how the project extended beyond transport to loyalty, access and payment.”

Orange is now committed to providing 500,000 NFC devices within its installed base; the AFSCM has said that French companies have committed to buy a total of one million NFC handsets in France this year.

Still some way to go

Nevertheless, the Nice rollout is still very small and it remains to be seen how the service will fare once it is available on a wider scale. Bouverot said the ongoing challenge is to create an “ecosystem” to support NFC services, ideally on a global basis. “Orange is working with other operators, transport companies, banks, retailers and service providers to ensure this ecosystem is complete,” she added.

Nice may be able to show how it is done, but it may prove to be the exception rather than the rule if a fully mature ecosystem cannot be developed.

AM