Mobility-as-a-Service aims to provide an alternative to using the private car that may be as convenient, more sustainable, help reduce congestion and constraints in transport capacity and save people money. All that is by bringing various forms of transport into a single mobility service. This means collaborating closely with cities and other mobility operators, prioritising accessibility and alternative transportation (walking, cycling, public transport, micro-mobility, shared transport options) over private cars and ensuring the shared use of infrastructure, such as roadways, cycling lanes and payment technology.
Consumers are drawn to the most friction-free processes available. With consumer trends moving towards totally electronic wallets, the digitisation of payment methods is now part and parcel of keeping up with consumer demand.
Offering digitalised tickets and accepting contactless payments eliminates the need for travellers to wait in a queue to buy a ticket and massively improves operational efficiencies for the transit operator. It also transforms the often-stressful travel experience by ensuring quick entry to the transit system without needing a specialist transit card, thereby increasing ridership volumes, and reducing the overhead expense of issuing cards.
According to Juniper’s report¹, mobile ticketing has become a primary driver of MaaS, with 60% of all mobile ticketing users using metro and rail ticketing by 2023. A carrier billing payment mechanism allows consumers to pay for tickets on their phone in a few seconds, and the costs would be securely charged to their mobile phone bill — working for both prepay and postpay users. They could also be used to pay for EV charging points, e-scooter access, bikes and more. There’s no app to download and it works for those without bank accounts. The whole aim of MaaS is, after all, to make things simpler; not more complicated.
And the best part? It’s tried and tested, and it works. Sunhill Technologies² in Germany has rolled out carrier billing across both public transport and car parking services.
And regardless of where people live, mobile is the easiest payment option for many, particularly when it can be done in just a couple of taps, all through one device. From reducing queues at barriers to dwell time trying to pay; consumers will have a better experience.
Fonix has joined CoMoUK to showcase direct carrier billing as an opportunity to develop mobility solutions for shared modes of transport. Ideally suited to the ticketing model for cashless and touchless purchases, direct carrier billing is a simple innovation that centralises the billing system and the user journey to one device, allowing a commuter to pay for a ticket via their mobile phone bill.
