Smartspace Software Share Discussion Threads

[awilson] 02/6/2006 08:40

Garth,
Thankyou

[garth] 02/6/2006 08:17

Zog & AWilson,

They might very very well get involved in the project - they certainly have the technology to deliver within such a project - and it is one of the areas within which they already have involvement. RBS was one of those companies in discussions with TfL on the extension of their Oyster Card functionality - talks which we know fell down on issues of fees for the banks and who would pay for the technology. Ecebs (SMRT) are RBS' partner although RBS have also been trialling a Mastercard tap and go system at their head office. I believe that the Mastercard system runs on MULTOS but I'd have to check.

I am of the opinion that any such card coming into usage would be good news for SMRT. ITSO is the Government's smartcard standard for travel. Oyster and Calypso are already moving through the process of being made ITSO compliant. When you already have millions of those cards in people's hands why would you not want to utilise that market? Convergence, interoperability, market consolidation. All points to SMRT being involved sooner or later IMO. I really believe the potential here is that compelling.

Kind regards,

G.

[zog] 01/6/2006 12:14

Hi garth, an article about the sQuid card appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on May 14th:-

The details are pretty much the same as you quote above.
For info, sQuid also have a website, www.squidcard.com , which includes a few recent press releases (though not much else yet). The concept looks very interesting, particularly if NM Rothschild can raise financial backing for them.

I see that you started your post #98 above by saying "Not SMRT", but is there any reason why SmartCard/Ecebs should not become involved with the sQuid project - surely it could provide quite a boost for SMRT if they did.

[awilson] 01/6/2006 09:07

Garth

How big a threat would sQuid be to SMRT?

[garth] 01/6/2006 08:25

Not SMRT, but related area:

Nucleus to launch sQuid e-money card in UK
UK branding agency Nucleus has appointed investment bank Rothschild to raise £15 million to fund a contactless payment system to rival Transport for London's (TfL) Oyster smart card, according to a report by UK broadsheet The Daily Telegraph.
But the new card, to be called sQuid, will not be used to pay for journeys, but to pay for low-value cash transactions.


The move to the launch the sQuid card follows TfL's failure to reach agreement with technical and financial partners to add contactless payments functionality to its Oyster smart card.


TfL said last July that it was holding discussions with a number of firms to provide and integrate the technology for the new e-money system, including Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Paypal. But earlier this month the company said the ideas and models put forward had been too complex and it has not seen a system acceptable to retailers.


But according to the Daily Telegraph report, Nucleus believes that the technical issues can be resolved and that a partner can be found to take on some of the risk.


A spokesman for the company told reporters that sQuid would be launched in the first quarter of 2007, deploying existing technologies including the "touch and go" system currently used by Oyster.



UK Firm Seeks Big Money For Small-Purchase Smart Card

Transport for London, the UK capital's transit authority, may have given up on the idea of a contactless smart card that could be used for small purchases outside of transit systems, but UK-based consultancy Nucleus Ltd. has not. Nucleus tells Card Technology sister publication CardLine Europe that it has appointed the Rothschild Group, an investment bank, to raise £10 million ($18.7 million) to £15 million ($28.1 million) to fund the development of a prepaid contactless smart card that consumers could tap on a reader to quickly buy a newspaper, coffee, or other inexpensive item. A Nucleus spokesperson says partners in the project will be announced in the near future but would not provide additional details. Nucleus had been one of the potential partners in an initiative by TfL to add an electronic purse to TfL's Oyster card, which is used for fare payment on London's underground railway and buses. That electronic purse would have allowed cardholders to use their cards to make small purchases at retail outlets. TfL abandoned that project earlier this spring after concluding it was not financially feasible. In a statement, Nucleus says that its card will be called sQuid. The card will be launched by sQuidcard Ltd., a new subsidiary of Nucleus, in the first quarter of 2007, the company says. Nucleus estimates that UK consumers make between £15 billion and £20 billion worth of low-value cash payments a year, and the new card is meant to capture some of those transactions. (2006-05-31)

[garth] 23/5/2006 12:01

March 2006 powerpoint on Calypso & itso:



News from yesterday:

Calypso is spreading (Navigo cards are Calypso compliant)

Navigo Travel Cards With ASK Technology Replace Carte Orange in the Paris Area
Monday May 22, 1:13 pm ET
More Than 1.5 Million Parisians Join RATP and SNCF to Endorse Contactless Technology for Public Transport

[garth] 23/5/2006 11:46

Little tick up today. Is that you buiyng Katie?

[garth] 22/5/2006 22:30

igoe,

Can you shed any more light on what they had to say?

Cheers,

G.

[highlander2] 20/5/2006 19:28

Worrying week re US & UK interest rates hikes fears.
Hopefully message noted below is an indication of an
interest hold in the US.

"Earlier, influential bond guru Bill Gross of Pacific
Investment Management Co. said in a television interview
that he believes the Federal Reserve is likely to pause
in its rate tightening program, leaving the federal-funds
rate at its current 5% level."

Fingers crossed!!

[igoe104] 20/5/2006 11:53

a good write up in the ic, saying the shares are worth buying.

[rcktmn] 19/5/2006 17:30

Agree,
the've taken the opportuinty to tree shake in a bad week.. It's been grim all round for my portfolio this week. lost 12% on what should've been good "BUY" shares.. hopefully next week we'll start to see a recovery ?

[archa] 19/5/2006 16:39

In view of today's price fall (6.25%), can we be so sure that the interims will be good? Maybe it is the MMs who are tree shaking in advance of the results. Any thoughts anyone?

Arch

[garth] 16/5/2006 14:17

Thanks Col.

And eventually the wider market will catch on.....

[colsmith] 16/5/2006 09:44

Garth thanks - I would also have highlighted Phase 2 as a key enabler becasue data structures are the barrier to integrating diverse system developed independently. This is frequently a reason for companies (that take over others) having a problem with combining the two separate systems. That ITSO and Calypso are doing this early shows the whole thing is well thought out.


------
Phase 2 – An examination of the data structures within the ticket types from both schemes and the effect of inclusion of CALYPSO transactions in the ITSO data flows

[garth] 15/5/2006 11:21

Process almost complete, the highlighted bit shows why SMRT stand to gain :0)


ITSO & CALYPSO
Collaboration
ITSO & CALYPSO are to jointly investigate their respective systems and procedures with a
view to;
• Acceptance of the CALYPSO cards into the ITSO specification as (initially) an
optional mandatory addendum
• Promotion of the ITSO specification and services by CALYPSO where the ITSO
scheme provides complementary elements to the CALYPSO scheme.
• Collaboration with input to the CEN & IOPTA standardisation process
To achieve the above the two companies will embark on a phased investigation process;
Phase 1 – A technical level review of the two schemes to establish the feasibility of
adding the CALYPSO SAM functionality into the ITSO SAM and having only the
resulting one SAM in the terminals. In addition, the team will investigate if the ITSO
Security Management Service could be used to centrally manage the CALYPSO
keys.
Phase 2 – An examination of the data structures within the ticket types from both
schemes and the effect of inclusion of CALYPSO transactions in the ITSO data flows
Phase 3 – Possible extension of the ITSO accreditation scheme to include CALYPSO
Phase 4 – Review of the business and commercial aspects of each scheme in order
to define the final collaboration.
Mr Peter STODDART (General Manager of ITSO) said 'We believe the outcome of this investigation will be positive as ITSO was designed to incorporate other security schemes.
The inclusion of CALYPSO within the ITSO specification would provide the transport industry in the UK and the rest of Europe with a powerful range of system options'.
Mr Philippe VAPPEREAU of RATP said " ITSO and CALYPSO are complementary to define a contactless ticketing system, and the proposed collaboration will allow a better understanding for all those who want to implement a ticketing system mixing advantages of the two approaches".

[sell sell sell] 15/5/2006 08:24

It should certainly be a good interim.

[archa] 12/5/2006 21:04

There should be an interim results announcement around the end of this month. Does anyone have any views as to the chance of the company bettering 50% of the pre-IPO broker forecast for this financial year? The forecast for the year to 30th September 2006 was given as £300,000.

Arch

[garth] 11/5/2006 10:54

Plenty of buyers at 3p able to sell for a 30% profit - especially if they took on extra shares for just that purpose?

[bonty] 11/5/2006 10:43

Who would be selling sizeable (100k and 150k)chunks of shares at this time?
Or am I missing something?
B.

[garth] 11/5/2006 05:50

He's certainly got Smartcard involvement going back to 2002/3 as far as I can see having a brief look....

Anyone aware of any Scottish Smartcard companies involved in transportation ticketing?

[rambutan2] 10/5/2006 23:49

scottish mafia - nuff said!

[garth] 10/5/2006 16:36

That's the one Bonty :0)

Also in the news today is national congestion charging - latest ITSO newsletter has something to say about that.......

And don't forget that Calypso certification is also in the last stages....

Should all help to make the recent £700K contract announcements modest.

DYOR

G.

[bonty] 10/5/2006 15:39

Looks like excellent news, well found G.!

Does this:
"Transport for London has also agreed to work with the Department for Transport to ensure that all Oyster equipment is capable of accepting other smart cards. These are currently under development for use on public transport across the country by the Integrated Ticketing Smartcard Organisation (ITSO).
This is a further step towards the wider introduction of smart ticketing technology outside of London. It will allow the development of fully integrated ticketing systems in and beyond the Capital, extending the convenience and ease of smartcard technology to millions more passengers."

mean what I think it means. i.e. an ECEBs ISAM in every machine?

B.

[garth] 10/5/2006 15:25

Major news ;0)



DYOR