Nokia phone just the ticket for Tube travellers

Paying for London Underground travel and goods using a Nokia phone has proved a big success for 500 testers during trials.

O2 ran the six-month trial, which involved putting Oyster card technology and a Barclaycard Visa card into a Nokia 6131 handset.

Nine out of ten of O2’s testers reported that they were happy to use the near-field communications (NFC) technology, with convenience, ease of use and the boon of having such a unique device all scoring highly with the satisfied participants.

Almost nine out of ten (89 per cent) claimed they would use it again and it was apparently noticeable that one in five of the special Nokia owners made more journeys on public transport than they would normally have done during the period of the experiment.

Nokia will now have a keen interest in trying to make Nokia mobile phone Tube travel a reality - 87 per cent of the testers said the ability to use Oyster on a mobile phone was likely to influence their choice of phone.

What’s in it for the man and women on the street though? Well, ask yourself the question which item would you be likely to notice had gone missing first - a bank card in a purse or wallet buried among lapsed gym membership cards or a treasured mobile phone?

If the answer is the latter then that could go some way to allaying fears that losing your mobile would mean losing your bank details too.

The six-month trial also involved the Nokia owners being able to use their handsets to buy goods at selected stores such as EAT, YO! Sushi, and Krispy Kreme.

Industry opinion that using mobile ‘wallets’ could become a widespread reality within the next two years is an appetising proposition.

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