WMF, SmartCard, ja Pluto ..*
TMF_UK kattelin Wireleass multimedia forum usual suspects + TXN csco+ docomo ja parthus pitää isoo ääntä.
Docvomo 3g videotestit, mikä softa packet video vai Emblaze, vai onko muuta.
nokia kontti = konkia notti .
Konkia makso 5 taala itrusta ny 1.19.
Konkia irtisanoo tuhansia .. pian... ei suomessa..
Hassuja miten baöltimore ja muut lähestyy nolaa. nO Future SANO SID VICOUS.
Smartcards: a boost on the way?
Significant projects promise to spur demand
By Madeleine Acey, FTMarketWatch 3:19:00 PM BST Jun 26, 2001
LONDON (FTMW) - Smartcards could be about to enjoy a much-needed boost.
Makers of smartcards, such as Gemplus [FR:005768] [US:GEMP], Oberthur [FR:012413] and Schlumberger [US:SLB] are in the wars at the moment - all posting profit or revenue warnings this month. (See links at bottom.)
The industry has suffered from patchy take-up around the world of the plastic cards with embedded microchips that carry information - such as credit card security data, mobile phone pre-payment credits and pay-TV restricted access permission.
Since the early 1990s, technology companies such as AT&T [US:ATT] and Bull [FR:005260] promised that a single smartcard would be able to hold all of a consumer's credit, loyalty and ID card information. Gone would be the embarrassment of branded plastic that increasingly weighed on wallets.
But projects to bring companies' systems together have fallen by the wayside and single-use smartcards have slowly become accepted in a few sectors. Several single-use implementations have also been a bit of a flop including the Mondex cash card.
The mobile phone industry has boosted demand of late and may have raised expectations a bit too high. But two projects in the UK look like they could give the industry the long-awaited boost it appears to need and make the cards an expected part of everyday life.
__ 'Multiple applications are just around the corner, that's the really exciting part'
Smartcards
One in particular is expected to put smartcards into the hands of three to five million London commuters in its first 12 months for use on tubes and trains.
When it's properly launched (target date August 2002), London Underground's Prestige project will have been 11 years in the making since a feasibility study in 1991.
Tube staff have just started trialing the radio-based contactless smartcards that should replace magnetic stripe paper tickets and allow customers to pass through ticket gates without removing their pre-paid cards from their bags or pockets. Buses, trams and Docklands Light Rail stations have all been equipped to take the cards, along with the tube network.
Go deeper
News Alerts
MarketPulse
News Stories
Europe
US
Global
News by Email
The consortium that won the £1.2 billion private finance initiative (PFI) contract, Transys, says the project would be one of the largest of its kind in the Western world and the largest outside the banking industry. A spokeswoman for the group said the excitement from the industry's point of view came from the project's potential to make smartcards commonplace and even expected.
Killer app
"People talk about having a killer application (to spur an industry), I think this is an anchor application," said spokeswoman Nicole Carroll. She said other services could be added to it. For example, the cards could be used to pay for planned road congestion charges for driving into central London as well as parking meters.
The possibilities were endless, she said. "You could have a loyalty scheme for your morning coffee, a child's lunch money...."
She added that companies that would have shied away from teaming up with a bank to put payments or loyalty points on a smartcard, might be happier to sign up with a public service-related card.
"Multiple applications are just around the corner, that's the really exciting part."
Huge undertaking
__ 'You could have a loyalty scheme for your morning coffee'
She said the reason the project had taken so long was nothing to do with the technology or customer acceptance - first tested on buses in Harrow in the early 1990s - but the sheer scale of the undertaking. Having to integrate the different parts of London's public transport systems, make sure they could all use the same cards, and having to replace ticket machines and gates in such an old and vast underground station network. "This is huge," she said.
She said Hong Kong and Washington DC had smartcards for public transport but on a much smaller scale and without major infrastructure changes.
Transys is a partnership between IT services company EDS [US:EDS], Cubic Corporation [US:CUB], ICL [US:FJTSY] and WS Atkins and was awarded the contract to source the cards and convert ticket systems to take and top-up the cards in 1998.
It plans to announce its smartcard and components suppliers soon.
High tech council
Meanwhile a local council is planning to issue multi-use smartcards to residents for automated payment and access to services.
Although on a much smaller scale than the London transport project, plans by Bracknell Forest Borough Council, in Berkshire, are significant in that the cards will have many functions and will interact with different organisations - from libraries to schools, from youth clubs to the council car parking department.
Being developed within a £3.3 million contract with BT Ignite [UK:BTA], it has already enabled electronic payment for school meals and attendance records - linked to a rewards system.
__ 'It is the first time multi-function smartcards have been introduced by a local authority'
"Single-application smartcard technology isn't new, but what's exciting and innovative about this arrangement with BT is that it's the first time multi-function smartcards have been introduced by a local authority," said the Council's chief executive Gordon Mitchell.
"We are building a model that has already attracted national government interest."
The council area is home to many high tech companies and their staff.
Widely-used
Both projects hold the promise of making smartcards widely-used and familiar in many peoples' lives. The London transport cards will probably see millions of commuters using the technology.
The Bracknell initiative should see many parts of local residents' lives automated - from ordering driving licences to paying utility bills.
"The smartcard is scaleable to accommodate as many different applications as possible, making things simpler for our residents - who will only need one card - and more cost-effective for the council," said Bracknell council CEO Mitchell.
Bluetooth services get boost
But will people pay for them?
By Madeleine Acey, FTMarketWatch 12:12:00 PM BST Jun 20, 2001
LONDON (FTMW) - Taking us all a step closer to must-have mobile data services, Ericsson [US:ERICY] [SE:000010865] and Vodafone [UK:VOD] [US:VOD] have announced advances in corporate and Bluetooth offerings. But will people pay for such services?
Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson said it was embarking 0on its first trial of information and Internet services using Bluetooth in Japan.
Bluetooth is a short-range radio-based transmission technology aimed at allowing data to flow between computerised devices wirelessly, such as mobile phones and laptops, or in this case two Tokyo cafe's Internet access computers and handheld computers rented to customers.
Go deeper
News Alerts
MarketPulse
News Stories
Europe
US
Global
News by Email
Japanese service trial
The project is being carried out in partnership with Handspring [US:HAND] with Sony [US:SNE], Mitsubishi Estates [US:MITEY], Casio [US:CSIOF] and Compaq [US:CPQ], among others.
Very few Bluetooth products have been released and some industry commentators have criticised companies that build the technology into their products for not making them compatible, so that all Bluetooth products could talk to all others. The launching of services should spur demand for the emerging products.
Many European and Israeli start-ups such as Cambridge Silicon Radio and BrightCom have developed Bluetooth components for computer makers to build-in to their products. Larger telecoms equipment companies like Alcatel [FR:013000] have also got in on the act.
Ericsson, which pioneered the technology, said that in Japan, West Japan Railway would also test a Bluetooth-based data service at one of its stations and on a bullet train. Customers could have pre-chosen information "pushed" to their handheld devices.
BT's Ignite [UK:BTA] [US:BTY] said recently that it would test a service with Red-M at a London train station and on an unnamed company's trains. See story.
Three quarters won't pay
But Finnish mobile commerce technology company WCL (Wireless Communications Ltd.) said on Wednesday it had conducted a survey that found more than three quarters of UK mobile phone users weren't willing to pay for text-based services sent to their phones. In Finland, the company said, the situation was the opposite - more than three quarters were prepared to pay.
WCL's head of commercial strategy Damon Lambert said this was "due to the lack of high-quality content services currently available in the UK".
"Without the commitment of content providers to develop innovative and informative SMS (short message service)-based content, UK consumers will continue to be deprived from embracing such opportunities," he said.
Business email on mobiles
The British mobile phone network operators have focused efforts on services for corporate customers. And Vodafone announced on Tuesday it would provide business customers with Microsoft [US:MSFT] Outlook and Exchange email, calendar and contacts data on mobile phones and personal organisers.
Originally announced in September last year, the company launched its OfficeLive service for WAP (wireless application protocols) phones and personal organisers on Tuesday. The company said the service was the result of collaboration with Microsoft.
Compelling
The two companies said they thought this kind of service would be compelling for companies. "This provides fast mobile access to Microsoft-based applications previously only available on the desktop - a service our customers have been waiting for," said Microsoft's mobility group sales and marketing vice president Juha Christensen. He said Microsoft thought the service was key for companies that wanted to reduce costs.
Mobile operators are keen to launch data services they can charge significant sums for as they need to claw back investment in expensive third generation (3G) licences.
Access to company email without having to lug around a laptop with wireless Internet access could well be compelling. But WCL said it had found UK mobile phone users weren't yet in the habit of using mobile data for work. Less than 4.5 percent of respondents said they communicated with work contacts via text messaging, "..indicating text messaging has not yet taken off as a business communication tool".
Ericsson shares were down more than 6 percent at €54.50 at lunchtime in Stockholm. In London, Vodafone was down 2.6 percent in a negative telecoms market at 157.25 pence.
Madeleine Acey writes on technology for FTMarketWatch in London. |
