On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:20:56 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:
On Thu, 5 Jan 2006 01:07 +0000 (GMT Standard Time),
(Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article , ] (Arthur Figgis) wrote:
Is Oyster technology proprietory, or can anyone get the specs and make
their own kit if they want?
I believe Transys own it.
You would be wrong. There are appropriate licensing provisions so other
manufacturers can make compatible kit. It was not acceptable for us to
create a contract that would lock everyone into Transys.
So if Figgis Smartcards Ltd wanted to churn out Oyster-compatible
equipment cheaper than whoever now makes it, there would be nothing to
stop it?
The government's problem with Oyster is the
risk of supplier lock-in.
No the government's problem is that it wants ITSO to be the standard
despite being 10 years behind the times. It also doesn't want to pay
anything to make any of this happen.
Which surely leaves the TOCs stuck in the middle until something which
meets both requirements is available?
The government could make the TOCs adopt Oyster or any form of Smartcard
technology tomorrow if it was so minded.
But could it (short of passing a new law or paying all the costs), if
it (presumably) isn't in the franchise agreements? If the TOCs have
all reached the same conclusion not to fit it, might this not tell us
something about whether it is worth the TOCs' while to do it?
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK