Tourist information centres in the Spanish city of Caceres are to distribute Google Nexus S NFC phones to visitors, to allow them to access museums, receive promotional coupons and obtain information about the city’s sights.
Tourists visiting the Spanish Unesco World Heritage city of Caceres will be able to borrow an NFC-enabled phone free of charge, allowing them to get information on the city, pick up discount coupons and access museums during their stay.
Google Nexus S phones will be provided to any visitor to the western Spanish city who requests one at the tourist information centre. Future plans include extending the functionality throughout the city so that visitors can also use the phones to buy goods in shops.
Telecoms firm Gamma Solutions is behind the new ‘Diggi’ service. “The services that we will support are a multimedia audioguide, online information system based on NFC tags and contactless identification for access to tourist attractions,” Gamma’s Gustavo Florido told NFC World. “The city hall will provide the NFC phone at the tourist information office during an initial check-in process.”
Gamma’s solution has been designed to enable it to connect to a TSM platform in the future, he added, “in order to load and manage future applications in a secure element.”
“We are following the AFSCM and the GlobalPlatform standards as well as GSMA guidelines, and we are looking forward to having an open system where we could offer NFC services to a tourist over-the-air. This part depends a lot on the effort that the MNOs are doing here in Spain.”
Last month the three largest mobile network operators in Spain signed a cooperation agreement aimed at generating a stable NFC ecosystem and minimising the risk of market fragmentation.
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