Vodafone Spain is to begin rolling out NFC mobile ticketing through its Vodafone Wallet in cities across Spain. The mobile network operator has teamed up with Gemalto and transport ticket provider PrePay Technologies to develop the platform, which will enable “any public transport agency or body to offer mobile accessible public transport”.

“Vodafone’s customers will only have to swipe their Vodafone Wallet-enabled mobile over the transport validators to use buses, subways and trams, providing potential access to more than 8.2m inhabitants,” the company says.“PrePay Technologies distributes transport tickets for 21 operators in 18 cities throughout Spain and has 1,500 physical points of sale where passengers can top-up their public transport passes.”

PrePay Technologies currently issues tickets in Ávila, Seville, Huelva, Albacete, Burgos, Lleida, Tarragona, Girona, Gijón, Palencia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Guadalajara, Torrelavega, Sagunto, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Córdoba and Figueras.

Open-ended

“In the next few weeks, Albacete will become the first city to offer its bus tickets in Vodafone Wallet,” Vodafone adds. “The cities of Seville, Burgos, Lleida, Guadalajara, Huelva, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Torrelavega have already shown an interest in joining the project and we will start working with them soon.

“The open-ended deal means that any other transport operator that wants to mobile-distribute its travel passes can join the scheme and benefit from the infrastructure that Vodafone, PrePay Technologies and Gemalto have developed.”

Vodafone Wallet launched in November 2013 and is currently available in Germany, Spain, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.

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