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Cellphones Handhelds The Almighty Buck Transportation Wireless Networking

Salt Lake City To Launch Mobile Payment System 60

Posted by samzenpus from the wave-N-pay dept.
jitendraharlalka writes "According to The Register: 'Operator consortium Isis has selected Salt Lake City as its flagship deployment to show the rest of the USA what NFC can do for them. The plan will see Salt Lake City's public transport system accepting pay-by-wave from a mobile phone by the middle of next year. Retailers have also been encouraged to adopt Near Field Communications technology at the point of sale, as Salt Lake City strives to become The Place You Can Leave Your Wallet At Home. The Utah Transit Authority already uses proximity payment cards, deployed in 2009, so adding NFC functionality to public transport is a matter of software not hardware.'"
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Salt Lake City To Launch Mobile Payment System More

Salt Lake City To Launch Mobile Payment System

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  • Japan's been doing this for quite some time now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeliCa [wikipedia.org]

  • How come (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gohtar ( 1829140 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @04:22PM (#35738264)
    I get news about changes in the city where I live from a British news source? Something is wrong with this...

  • Public transit made the dollar coin relevant again - take it away and the dollar coin becomes a novelty, again.

    I think if something like this payment by wave thing becomes common then we can expect hacks where people are charged without even knowing it, at some point.

    • I always thought, it was the vending machines that kept the coins relevant.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gt35r ( 1689628 )

      Public transit made the dollar coin relevant again - take it away and the dollar coin becomes a novelty, again.

      I think if something like this payment by wave thing becomes common then we can expect hacks where people are charged without even knowing it, at some point.

      With all the other ways your cards can get charged with out you knowing or your consent, I think it is just part of the game. All you can really do at this point is exercise personal responsibility and check your card statements a couple times a week for fraudulent charges. The banks and the like aren't concerned about looking out for you at this level. Living in Salt Lake City though, I'm probably going to give this a try, even if it's only for novelty value.

  • Cool thanks! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by trollertron3000 ( 1940942 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @04:27PM (#35738334)

    I for one cannot wait to use your phone to make my purchases.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sky Cry ( 872584 )
      NFC is usually deployed for small payments only. If your phone was stolen, someone spending a few dollars on a ticket is going to be the least of your worries. In fact, it might even help police catch the thief.
  • In Japan, everybody has a portable phone, all the phones have id-chips in them, and everybody already uses their phone to pay for the subway. They've been doing this for years and years, now. The only way we could possibly do any better is if you could use your phone like a Visa card. That would require all POS card readers to recognize the chips in the phones. A huge upgrade we wouldn't have to make if we had been doing it the way the Japanese have been doing it for years now.

    • One of the reasons that stuff like Felica succeeded in Japan is that for the longest time it was a cash society (true actually for many Asian nations), and even today you'll find many establishments that are still cash-preferred/-only. The situation would be very different if credit cards had taken root earlier.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      A huge upgrade we wouldn't have to make if we had been doing it the way the Japanese have been doing it for years now.

      So, basically you are saying we wouldn't have to upgrade now if we had upgraded a long time ago. Thanks for the insight.

  • and for that, I would refuse it.

    slippery slope that makes travel less anonymous.

    I just don't like this trend. neither do I like it when they *assume* you carry a phone.

    (and no, I don't.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      You act like 'they' can't find you now. DO you get a pay check? yes? well they know where you find you.
      Have a license? taxes? friends? and /. account? they can find you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      sorry for the dbl post, but to prove a pont I spoent exactly 30 seconds to see what I can find out about you.

      You used to work for AT&T
      You do snmp
      and you are probably Bryan Levin
      I could be off base, but If I was tasked be the government to find out more accurate information, it might take me an hour.

      • Aww heck, I'll post again too.

        To me this isn't about finding out who I am. I personally don't care if you do that.

        To me, it isn't even close to a privacy issue, but of the inevitable exploit of the system.

        As easily as you "object lesson" TheGratefulNet, the bad guys can steal money from the unsuspecting.

  • $10 says that after they roll this out to the rest of the country we rapidly find out that nobody noticed the system doesn't work for buying alcohol

  • I used it there in Feb on the buses up to the ski resorts. My son works for a bank and test used a swipe phone two years ago. When people behind him in line saw it, they all asked, "Where can I get one?" Expect it will be the norm in a few years.

  • And I don't just mean that figuratively.

    If one of these goes on the fritz because some drunk pounds it with a rebar he found lying on the road, it's going to strand commuters.

    On the other hand, since it doesn't involve any sort of slot to insert or swipe anything, that's one less point of weakness. You can plant the NFC transceiver behind an inch of HDPE (plastic decking, e.g.) and it'll never feel a thing.

    The ticket-printer slot is still going to be there. Unless the ticket is also electronic and someone

    • Many subway/public transport systems already have swipe readers, such as TAP in los angeles. It just requires carrying around a special TAP card and opening a TAP account rather than being able to use your phone and an independent billing method. Most stops have automated payment kiosks only and no one gets stranded, they just aren't very attractive vandalism targets and there are a lot of CCTV cameras at the stops.

  • ...but don't forget your expensive smartphone.
    • Yeah, not a very good idea. If I leave my wallet at home and replace it with my phone, that means I have to load all my credit card info, my drivers license, my various id's, my voter registration, and my BestBuy reward zone card, which was just compromised anyhow.

      What ever could go wrong?

      • Yeah, not a very good idea. If I leave my wallet at home and replace it with my phone, that means I have to load all my credit card info, my drivers license, my various id's, my voter registration, and my BestBuy reward zone card, which was just compromised anyhow.

        What ever could go wrong?

        Who carries their voter registration around with them? Everywhere I've lived, you only need something on Election Day, and it's generally just a driver license.

  • Pihk-lee-wah?

    Pie-klie-wah?

    I prefer the first choice.

  • I wouldn't trust them with my money. Remember the Mountain Meadows Massacre
  • The concept sounds cool, but if all you have to do is get close the phone close enough to the scanner it seems easy enough for someone to walk around a crowded street and charge everyone they pass.
  • Time to get a Faraday cage cell phone bag to prevent random unauthorized charges if I happen to walk in the wrong place. That would kind of defeat the purpose of the phone though if nobody can contact me... FML.

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