Deutsche Bahn and NXP continue co-operation on 'Touch&Travel'

SINGAPORE: Deutsche Bahn and NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced to continue their co-operation on “Touch&Travel” in Germany.

“Touch&Travel” is a mobile ticketing scheme which is running in a pilot phase in Germany since 2008. Using Near Field Communication (NFC) the ticketing system enables e-ticketing based on NFC-enabled mobile phones. Deutsche Bahn and NXP together with other project partners co-operated in the pilot phase and are now joining forces to successfully bring “Touch&Travel” into the market.

“Touch&Travel” is an innovative mobile ticketing scheme with low infrastructure costs, which enables customers to use NFC-based mobile phones for fast and easy e-ticketing. The contactless technology of NFC allows passengers to conveniently purchase tickets by bringing the mobile phone close to “Touch&Travel” Touchpoints. Data is transmitted through an existing infrastructure - the mobile phone network - and payment for travel is securely made. The fare is calculated automatically and the billing is done on regular basis.

This system provides a simple and flexible access to public transport in Germany. Customers benefit by the unlimited access to travel across different means of transport by just using the NFC-enabled mobile phone for check-in and check-out. As the Touchpoint and the mobile phone are equipped with latest secure elements, the system combines high security demands and compliance to the German e-ticketing standard VDV-KA with ease of use.

‘’By driving the NFC technology and its leadership in secure contactless technologies in transportation, NXP is a competent partner for Deutsche Bahn in the project”, says Birgit Wirth, head of Project Mobility at Deutsche Bahn. Ruediger Stroh, executive VP and GM, Identification Business at NXP Semiconductors, adds: “The “Touch&Travel” project as a nationwide German use case for mobile ticketing will be a catalyst for the deployment of NFC phones in Germany. By its early involvement in NFC, Deutsche Bahn has shown that the company is at the forefront of innovation and values innovative contactless technology as opportunity to provide high customer comfort and security standards by using mobile ticketing schemes.”

NFC is a market proven technology co-invented by NXP in 2002. In 2004 NXP co-founded the NFC Forum to lead the collaboration with all industry stakeholders and help standardize the technology. NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies. Ranked as the number one contactless IC vendor by ABI Research for three years in a row, NXP is the global leader in NFC solutions, field proven in over 150 NFC trials and landmark commercial deployments worldwide. NXPs recently announced co-operation with Google on implementing an NFC stack in Google’s latest Android operating system, which will further speed up the market deployment of NFC.

Today, NFC offers consumers a high level of convenience, interactivity and security with their mobile devices, and further enhances their smartphone experiences by linking the virtual world of applications with the physical environment. Using natural touch gestures NFC devices can easily pair with accessories, interact on a peer-to-peer level to exchange data, and connect to a huge installed base of reader and tag infrastructures.