Location-based ticketing in public transport

Electronic fare management is a subject currently being intensively discussed everywhere. A lot of different solutions have been implemented in the past. But a new kind of solution has been introduced in the last few years: mobile ticketing. This ticketing concept uses customers’ mobile devices to buy public transport tickets, instead of selling them through special devices owned by the transport operators. Another topic of discussion in mobile technology is location–based services, which are services offered via the customer’s mobile device and based on the customer’s actual location. The benefit of location–based services is a service entirely adapted to the consumer’s actual needs. This document presents a concept that combines both ideas of mobile ticketing and location–based services to location–based ticketing. A research project, started in Spring 2005 in Germany, demonstrates how public transport customers can obtain a mobile ticket via GSM, UMTS or WLAN by using their mobile phone.