By
Telecom Lead Team: The NFC mobile market is set to grow. Worldwide mobile ticketing
transactions are set to quadruple to 23 billion by 2016. By 2016, NFC mobile tickets will
represent more than 50 percent
of all mobile ticketing revenue.
1 in 8 (13 percent) of North American and Western
European mobile users will use their NFC-enabled mobile phone as a metro rail
or bus ticket by 2016, compared with less than 1 percent today.
Worldwide,
mobile users are now beginning to adopt mobile tickets as an integrated part of
their mobile lifestyle, whether for airline, road or rail transport, sporting
or entertainment event access, according to Juniper Research.
While mobile tickets of all types are
growing in popularity, the ability to tap an NFC phone containing a mobile
ticket against an entrance gate has tremendous user appeal. For operators, a
mobile phone ticket also provides new marketing and sales opportunities
previously not available using paper or contactless smartcard tickets.
However, that NFC Ticketing must be
thoroughly tested before being launched to the public. For metro and bus
tickets in particular, speed of passenger processing is of the essence and
queues must not be allowed to build up as a result of ticket processing delays
either in mobile phones, gating or back office systems.
“NFC
mobile ticketing is still in its early stages, but it holds great promise
across the entire mobile ticketing market. Metro ticketing is leading the way
as an NFC ticket is a natural evolution from a contactless transport card and
can leverage the existing infrastructure. Add to this the option of
simultaneous payment and you have created a compelling user experience,” said report author David Snow.
