London Underground is reported to be set to launch a system that will allow people to pay for their train tickets using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology via mobile phones. The Guardian reports that Nokia and O2 are preparing final details of a handset with a built-in Oyster card, an existing service that allows travellers to pay for all their journeys using a single swipe card.
As well as London Underground, the NFC device could also be used for bus journeys around the capital as well as some overland train routes. Such a move would follow a similar system in use by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, where approximately half of all phones have inbuilt NFC technology.