Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:41:20 on
Mon, 28 Aug 2017, e27002 aurora remarked:

and anyway on card storage technology is obsolescent now.

So, what's next?

They are attempting to externalise the cost to the customer, so that the
pays for the storage medium (a smartphone) and its connectivity.

What's interesting from a technology-watcher's point of view is that the
railways don't have the slightest idea how this is all going to end up,
let alone how to get from here to there.

Since ITSO from 2009 we've had numerous pilots: barcodes on phones using
MMS or other generic technology, barcodes on phones delivered by a
special app, combined credit card and Oyster (to combat 'card bloat'),
trying to second guess the ticketing cost by examining your location
trails, NFC on phones [basically turning the phone's back cover into a
smartcard], and even embedding a traditional smartcard in the phone.

The only one that's showing staying power is Contactless Credit Cards.

Hmm, I wonder if that's planned to work with any third party
pay-by-phone contactless technologies [from Apple Pay via Google pay to
quirky ones like PayQwiq - pass the siqwbag], other than *just*
Visa/Mastercard?

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/other-methods-of-contactless-payment/apple-pay

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/other-methods-of-contactless-payment/android-pay

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/other-methods-of-contactless-payment/barclaycard-and-barclays-contactless-mobile


Carrying a physical Credit Card is just so passé, my dharling.

I have a visitor arriving at Heathrow from the USA next week, and it'll
be interesting to see if his credit card works the TfL gates.

Like you, I somehow doubt it. I don't think many US credit cards are
contactless.