Mobile ticketing

Mobile ticketing is the process whereby customers can order, pay for, obtain and/or validate tickets using mobile phones or other mobile handsets. Mobile tickets reduce the production and distribution costs connected with traditional paper-based ticketing channels and increase customer convenience by providing new and simple ways to purchase tickets.

The term can also refer to a method by which law enforcement agencies use in-car computers to create traffic citations in the field, then print a hard copy for the offender. The advantages of mobile ticketing include reduced paperwork time, reduced chance of tickets being made void by human error and immediate accessibility of citation information by other departments.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) 2007 announced a global standard that paves the way for global mobile phone check-in using two-dimensional (2D) bar codes. The industry has set a deadline of the end of 2010 to implement 100% bar coded boarding passes (BCBP). Upon full implementation, BCBP is said to be able to save the industry over US $500 million annually.

Mobile tickets can be purchased in a variety of ways including online, via text messaging or over the phone from a voice call, WAP page, or a secure mobile application. For repeated purchases such as daily train tickets, mobile applications or text messaging can be used. The drawbacks to text message purchasing is that either the vendor loses 40% of their revenue to the mobile operator, or any credit card purchase has to be achieved through a web page as the SMS has no security suitable for credit card entry, and very few ticket choices can be easily remembered and entered by SMS.

There are two distinct forms of SMS purchases: so-called 'premium SMS' purchases charged to the mobile operator bill; and SMS purchases charged to a payment card. Mobile ticket purchases are primarily user-initiated messages whereby a keyword is sent to a short code service number (e.g. GV for a single adult ticket in Gothenburg, Sweden or GN as a night-tariff ticket). A return message is sent containing the mobile ticket as either an MMS message, a URL leading to a 2D barcode, or as plain text with the ticket information.

With premium SMS the price of the ticket can be added to the users mobile phone bill or debited from their pre-paid service using SMS billing. The main business limitation is that when premium SMS is used for billing, by default around 20-40% of the transaction value is retained by the mobile operator and sms aggregator. Normally, this would not be viable for low margin tickets, however, in many cases much more favourable commercial terms have been negotiated e.g. between the public transport organisations and mobile operators. Payments charged to payment cards require an initial registration to associate the user's mobile phone number to their credit card, but have a far more favorable fee structure for service providers.

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Wikipedia