RFID cell phone train tickets

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rod Van Meter <rdv () tera ics keio ac jp>
Reply-To: <rdv () tera ics keio ac jp>
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 13:01:02 +0900
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RFID cell phone train tickets

[This is an interesting integration of RFID technology as the tag (not
reader) into a more capable computing device, the cell phone itself.
The related Suica cards contain an RFID, and are anonymous
repositories of digital cash of some sort.  Originally used only as a
debit card for the JR system of trains, many stores, especially in and
around the stations, are now accepting them.  I have two such cards in
my wallet, one Suica and one university security ID card, and having
both seems to add several hundred milliseconds to the read time and
make for a significant number of misfires on the read.

Once integrated into the phone, the status of anonymity and how you
"charge" the phone with more cash aren't immediately clear to me; I
think it gets added to your phone bill, which is not anonymous,
opening the possibility of tracking a known individual's movements and
buying habits.  Anonymity is less valued here, and traditional train
passes have your name on them.

More info on FeLiCa, an ISO/IEC 18092 RFID technology with data rates
of 106, 212, or 424kbps, is at
http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/contents02.html]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050223a4.htm
JR East lets DoCoMo handsets serve as tickets

By TAIGA URANAKA
Staff writer

East Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday it will start a new service in
January that allows NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s smart-card cell phone handsets
to be used as train tickets.

NTT DoCoMo, which in July released "mobile wallet handsets" embedded
with integrated-circuit chips developed by Sony Corp., said it expects
use of the handsets to grow to 10 million by the end of March 2006
from the current 2 million.

The handsets can be used to pay for movie tickets and even as
electronic apartment keys.

JR East's new service will allow people to pay their train fares by
tapping mobile phones on electronic readers mounted on ticket wickets,
which is the same way JR East's electronic cash card -- the Suica card
-- is used.

The new handsets feature the same technology used in the Suica card,
which was introduced in November 2001 and is used by more than 10
million commuters.

The technology, called FeliCa, was developed by Sony and is used by
the public transportation systems of Hong Kong, China and
Singapore. More than 70 million FeliCa cards have been issued
worldwide, according to Sony.

JR East said the handsets will be more convenient than cards, because
cash balances can be directly checked by the customer, who will no
longer need to visit the ticket machines.

JR East President Mutsutake Otsuka told a joint news conference the
new service may even change the appearance of railway stations by
reducing the number of ticket machines and freeing up vast amounts of
space for other purposes.

The new service will be designed exclusively for NTT DoCoMo's
smart-card handsets, but Otsuka did not rule out alliances with other
mobile carriers.

The Japan Times: Feb. 23, 2005




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