The new system was developed by Siemens Business Services (SBS) and is very easy to use. Customers need only to register one time on the Internet. Following the registration, the software required for the system is sent to the customer’s Java-enabled cell phone and automatically installed. Users can then access an easy-to-navigate menu, find the ticket they’re looking for, and purchase it with the push of a button. Fares can be paid by credit card, or the price can be automatically deducted from the customer’s bank account. A prepaid service option will also be available. Purchase orders for everything from a single fare to a monthly pass are sent by the cell phone via GPRS to a central server, which sends the virtual ticket to the customer in less than ten seconds. The passenger can then show conductors and bus drivers their cell phone, which will display the boarding station and destination, along with the fare price. In the future, it may become possible to send a ticket to a phone in the form of a readable two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned.

The pilot project will be launched initially in Essen, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Wuppertal, Chemnitz, Bautzen and the Vogtland region. Plans call for the expansion of the project to other cities after 2008. Among other benefits, the system eliminates the need to search for money or use ticket-vending machines in unfamiliar cities. Because all local public transport systems in Germany use the same technology, a traveler from Nuremberg on a visit to Hamburg, for example, will be able to purchase a ticket immediately, without having to decipher the details of the local transport system. And customers in the Rhine-Ruhr region will also be able to use the service even if their cell phone isn’t Java-enabled. They’ll simply send the appropriate text message to telephone numbers that are posted at every station, and the server will send them a ticket in just a few seconds. (IN 2006.12.3)