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French city pilots ticketless public transport payment by smartphone

French local transport authority Valence Romans Déplacements (VRD) in south-eastern France, is piloting Xerox Seamless, an easy-to-use technology for public transport mobile payments that enables passengers to make payments by smartphone. Between now and the end of June 150 customers will use the Xerox Seamless app on their smartphones to travel on the city’s buses, operated by Citéa for VRD. Xerox has installed near field communication (NFC) tags on VRD’s local and intercity bus lines. Users downloa
October 5, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
French local transport authority Valence Romans Déplacements (VRD) in south-eastern France, is piloting 4186 Xerox Seamless, an easy-to-use technology for public transport mobile payments that enables passengers to make payments by smartphone.

Between now and the end of June 150 customers will use the Xerox Seamless app on their smartphones to travel on the city’s buses, operated by Citéa for VRD.

Xerox has installed near field communication (NFC) tags on VRD’s local and intercity bus lines. Users download the app to their NFC-enabled smartphone and register with Xerox Seamless to activate an account. Passengers simply tap the smartphone on any Xerox Seamless NFC tag to create and store an encrypted transaction and relay it to the smartphone. Constant network connection is not required - the transaction is transmitted when network connectivity is available.

"People have become used to using smartphones for a variety of activities,” said Aline Leclerc, a customer taking part in the pilot. “This new Xerox technology makes it easy for me to travel on buses across Valence and Romans.”

“Xerox Seamless has the potential to transform the travel experience in Valence by providing users with an alternative payment system that is both simple and secure,” said Marylène Peyrard, president of VRD. “This technology, which is compatible with all mobile phone operators, was installed quickly and easily on the network.”

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