Norway’s transport minister has called for a national standard for mobile ticketing based on NFC technology, and urged the mobile phone industry to help the country achieve that goal.

The country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications aims to expand the current national standard for electronic ticketing to include the ability for mobile phones to make payments on trains and other public transport services.

The work is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012, so that mobile payments can be made the following year.

Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa also called on mobile phone networks to offer NFC-enabled mobile phones in Norway, ready for the new service.

“Use of mobile phones as an electronic ticket will make it even easier to use public transport,” said the minister. “We must have in place a national standard for mobile ticketing, so we have a payment system that works the same all over the country.”

“There are many players heading in the same direction, and I have confidence that the industry will serve as a good partner for this work. The goal is to make it more attractive to use public transport, where customers can easily use the same ticketing and payment systems across the country.”

Norway’s national standard for electronic ticketing was first introduced in 2006 and more than 500,000 people currently use electronic travel cards.

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