Computer Guard is the business partner of the French company ASK for distribution, sales, and support of a variety of advanced products and solutions for the smart card field in public transportation in Israel.
With the ongoing penetration of smartphone applications into our world of use, it is only natural that the smart ticketing system in public transportation will be the next to be part of this development.
Current mobile applications and existing tools for online charging of multi-line cards are based on solutions that charge the physical card itself, the plastic that the public transportation passenger holds.
The new approach of public transportation authorities in the world and in Israel is to allow an application (app) that fully simulates the smart card inside the smartphone. The big problem until now stemmed from the fundamental need to use a secure element (SE) that authenticates the card and the transactions between it and the ticketing device. Until now, it was necessary to use a physical security element that could be implemented either in the SIM card or elsewhere in the mobile phone. This fact caused complete dependence on cellular operators or equipment manufacturers, and the more stakeholders involved, the more complicated the business becomes. Another problem was related to the fact that in order to use the application, the phone had to be online, i.e., with continuous reception quality, anywhere public transportation was used.
ASK has taken this challenge to the next level and is now entering the market with a solution based on Host Card Emulation (HCE) that addresses all of the above issues.
ASK, a company specializing in the design of secure contactless solutions for smart identification applications in general and public transportation in particular, has partnered with DigiMobee, a company that develops and provides mobile solutions and services, to create the MobeePass version for a full smart card solution in a smartphone using NFC (Near Field Communication).
The main features of the MobeePASS system are:
- Applicable to all NFC-enabled smartphones using HCE implementation
- Ergonomic use identical to that of a regular smart card.
- Simple and intuitive user interface
- Secure sales channel, compatible with all existing ticketing systems, no need to replace or change equipment.
- Can be downloaded to all Android-based smartphones with NFC, regardless of the mobile network operator, with optimal security.
The MobeePASS solution is already in commercial operation in Nice, approved by Calypso Network Association (CAN).
