Transport for London to accept NFC payments

Transport for London (UK) will support NFC payments on mobile phones in 2012, according to NFC World. “We are now in a position to say that if people come along with a contactless credit or debit card application on their mobile, we can accept it as an NFC payment in 2012,” Brian Dobson, manager of technology and systems for TfL’s Future Ticketing Project, told NFC World. “NFC will work on our new systems from the time that we are able to accept contactless cards.” The speed of the transactions has been an issue for TfL. Transaction speed for currently available technology is 500ms; TfL seeks a transaction speed of 350ms for high-volume use. “Our initial infrastructure roll-out in 2012 and 2013 will support current contactless cards, as the UK banks have already issued them,” Dobson said. “500ms is acceptable for a low volume of users, but to get faster, high volume use, we need faster cards.” As previously reported, TfL is in the process of upgrading its fare readers to accept payment by new technologies. The new bus readers are expected to be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics; deployment on the Underground will be complete in 2013. Link to full story in Near Field Communications World.

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