New NFC access and ticketing pilot developed by Fornax

After years of research and development in the area of NFC, Fornax is planning to launch several NFC access and ticketing pilots with various partners.

The abbreviation NFC became more frequent over the past years in the world of mobile development. This is no coincidence, as NFC offers possibilities that are not only great new technical solutions, but may soon bring about advantages that can make our everyday life more comfortable. NFC (Near field communication) is a simple wireless communication standard for the transfer of small amounts of data, supported by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) – the most straightforward name for it is contactless communication.
At first glance this is yet another data transfer protocol, such as Bluetooth. However, if NFC is complemented with a secure chip, which can store sensitive information as well, our handset can substitute any plastic card in our pocket – or even all of them at once. Our phone can become our contactless credit card, our electronic key, our travel card, our social security card, our many loyalty cards, even our purses. Moreover, as our handset accesses the network, our travel card can be topped up any time anywhere, no underground station or ticket kiosk is needed. Fornax ICT was among the first to gain NFC competence even in the international arena, its leading role in the technology is due partly to its participation in the EU research & development project, StoLPaN, and partly to a number of pilot operations.
Working in cooperation with other partners, Fornax ICT begun the implementation of an NFC application management system applying a brand new logistics approach. The goal of the project is to create a modern architecture based on existing standards. As opposed to the earlier service provider centric approaches this solution concentrates on the users, which will substantially speed up the proliferation of NFC applications and services.
These days the lack of appropriate handsets does not hinder the spreading of NFC applications and services. As even Apple has an NFC enabled handset now, NFC technology is free to demonstrate its true capabilities. Seeing the new opportunities Fornax ICT and her partners – public transport companies, mobile operators, manufacturers of access control devices – started the planning of a number of NFC projects to examine the options offered by NFC technology, especially the remote management of applications. Should the projects be successful, the commercial launch of these services can be expected.