Public transportation users in Paris can now buy and store transit tickets and passes on Samsung and Orange NFC phones — and can use any Android phone to buy a ticket and then upload it to their contactless travel card via NFC.

The new NFC ticketing service stores tickets and passes in the SIM in Android smartphones operating on the Orange and Sosh networks or in the embedded secure element built into certain Samsung phones, enabling commuters to use the service even if their smartphone is switched off or out of battery.

Daily, weekly and monthly travel passes, T+ prepaid ticket books and airport transfer services are all supported, Île-de-France Mobilités, the greater Paris regional transportation authority, says.

Currently available via Île-de-France Mobilités’ ViaNavigo mobile app, both the NFC ticketing and the NFC contactless card recharging functions will also be available from within the mobile apps of transportation operators RATP, SNCF and Transdev “in the coming months”.

The NFC ticketing service was co-developed by a consortium of companies including NFCW partner Dejamobile and follows the launch of Navigo contactless transit cards in June 2019.

Dejamobile’s ReadyToTap Mobility technology lets public transportation operators easily provide passengers with both NFC mobile ticketing and Calypso transit card loading, Bertrand Pladeau, Dejamobile’s COO and technical lead on the Paris project, told NFCW.

“It is available as a white label application or as a software-as-a-service platform and is designed to be highly flexible and fully customizable. That way, both large and small transport operators can easily adapt it to suit their needs.”