Press release

Telefónica O2 Czech Republic in collaboration with  Pilsen City Transport Company are introducing a unique solution of the city multifunctional smart card - the Pilsen City Card, integrated in a mobile phone. This card is currently used by the citizens of the West Bohemian capital not only as a ticket for public transport but also for the cashless transfer of contract partner’s products and services, tickets for various cultural events or as a library member card, the identifier in catering and accessing systems. The Pilsen City Card in a mobile phone is based on NFC (Near Field Communications) platform. The usage of this solution is identical with the standard Pilsen City Card, the contact less chip card with MIFARE™ technology provided by NXP Semiconductors.

"Personal chip cards offer a huge potential. Their mass-scale development is a matter of the near future. These cards can be used for instance for shopping, dealing with various authorities or health care” says about the benefits of the NFC technology Zdenek Dutý, Director of Sales to Government of Telefónica O2. „Until recently the cards had been used more or less in individual projects while the trend over the last years has been to integrate and use them for multiple transactions. The expansion of the cards will be as revolutionary as the onset of bank cards".

Since the first introduction of the Pilsen Card in 2004, more than 200,000 people from the whole country (of whom circa 75% come from the Pilsen region) have bought this product. Starting their cooperation in 2008, Telefónica O2 and NXP have decided, together with PMDP, to integrate the card including its features into a handset. This will enhance service comfort to the card holder and, most importantly, offer the opportunity to use a whole range of functions such as card credit control or on-line top-up.

"The incorporation of the Pilsen Card into a mobile handset represents a great innovation, in terms of technology as well as from the perspective of the user, this time the citizens of the City of Pilsen. We are proud of being the first and only provider in the Czech Republic to offer this service to Pilsen citizens in order to ease their daily life transactions," says Michal Kraus, Director General of PMDP.
 
On 1st  April 2009, the first phase of a Pilsen City Card in mobile trial, based on services related to electronic wallet,  was commenced with the total of 50 users testing their cards and the relevant application in real traffic. The first phase will last until 30th June. Phase no.2 will last from mid-summer till the end of 2009 and will be focused on services beside transport – contractors products and services payments (restaurants, cinemas, sport centres etc.).  At the same time, a launch of Pilsen Card into a mobile handset will be prepared into a productive operation. In terms of future development is possible an implementation of new features such as remote top up, delivery and validation of prepaid tickets (including time-limited tickets) via NFC handsets.

To be able to use the features of the city transport card, the user must be equipped with a device which supports such technology. This currently involves Nokia 6131 NFC and Nokia 6212 handsets. In the future, more types of handsets are planned to be added. Technically, the solution built on the MIFARE4Mobile™ platform, represents the world’s first implementation of its kind. The main benefit is the integrated handset which includes an embedded SmartMX chip. The chip carries a recorded e-purse application showing on the phone’s display available public transport tickets, the user's travel history, the current balance on the transit e-purse and the last four transactions made.

In the future, new features are to be added to the application to reflect the growing number of opportunities of usage and integration with other cards.

Contacts

Martin Žabka
Spokesman
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, a.s.
public.relations.cz@o2.com
t +420 271463359

About Telefónica O2 Czech Republic
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is a major integrated operator in the Czech Republic. It is now operating more than seven million lines, both fixed and mobile, making it one of the world’s leading providers of fully converged services. The organization offers the most comprehensive portfolio of voice and data services in this country. It is paying special attention to the exploitation of the growth potential, particularly in the data and Internet sector. Telefónica O2 Czech Republic operates the largest fixed and mobile network including a 3rd generation network, CDMA (for data), and UMTS, enabling voice, data and video transmission. Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is also a notable provider of ICT services.

About Telefónica Europe
Telefónica Europe is a business division of Telefónica comprising mobile, fixed, and DSL operations in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. With the exception of Isle of Man, all the operating businesses use 'O2' as their consumer brand. Telefónica Europe also has 50% ownership of the UK and Irish Tesco Mobile and German Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses. Telefónica Europe is headquartered in Slough, UK, and has 49 million mobile and fixed customers.

About Telefonica
Telefónica is one of the world’s largest telecommunications operators by market capitalisation. Its activities are centred mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses, while its broadband business is the key growth driver underpinning both.  It operates in 25 countries and has a global customer base of 260 million. Telefónica’s growth strategy is focused on the markets in which it has a strong foothold: Spain, Europe and Latin America.  Telefónica is a 100% private sector company with its shares listed in Madrid and other stock exchanges and more than 1.5 million individual shareholders

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