French State Financing Contactless Implementations
- During a conference on the implementation of mobile NFC solutions in France held on 21 March 2012, the French Minister of the Industry has announced that funds were to be granted by the government to several mobile NFC projects: this investment should represent 14.2 million euros. Nine towns and local administrations are concerned: Bordeaux, Caen, Grenoble, Marseille, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Toulon, Toulouse and the Comité régional du tourisme d’Ile-de-France.
- All these initiatives are upholding the provision of mobile multiservice features (access control, culture, ticketing, face-to-face payment, etc.). In addition to these State funds, local administrations should also contribute up to a certain amount: the overall subsidy might then reach 43.6 million euros. According to the French Minister, these funds might be increased to 25 million euros, at most.
- Further decisions regarding other projects (Manche Numérique and Nice) should soon be made public. Six initiatives are still under study (Besançon, Dijon, Lille, Reims, Rennes and the STIF).
- These towns have been “labelled” leading contactless regions in December 2010. 29 applications have been filed in October 2011; the 17 preselected towns could be sharing the mentioned subsidies.
- These announcements illustrate a national intent to develop mobile contactless services in the long run and even, with time, bring together all these projects. The ticketing industry is especially well represented and displaying large-scale players (including Ile-de-France’s STIF). It has been revisited however through the addition of several services designed to improve urban users’ daily life.
- For now, local projects rely on various kinds of solutions (mobile and card-based in Bordeaux, EasyMove in Caen, etc. – see previous Insights); nevertheless, in most cases, they tend to include multiservice features and make the best of mobile media.