Masabi and ACT to bring ITSO ticketing to smartphones

In joining the ACT Cloud Partnership Programme, Masabi joins the UK’s leading supplier of enterprise ticketing systems for public transport.

Masabi’s award-winning mobile ticketing technology is deployed and proven in both the UK and USA. This deal with ACT will see Masabi technology integrated into the ACT digital transactions and payments platform. Its mobile ticketing service will also be extended to facilitate the remote top up of smart cards as well as provide the future potential of using the mobile phone as a secure digital smart card.

Transport passengers need convenience and security when buying and loading their travel tickets, and smart cards have proven to be a popular tool for this purpose. As more mobile phone users switch to NFC enabled phones, using their phone as a ticket has become an obvious next step for ITSO smart ticketing. Now, with the development of feature-rich smart phones and advanced mobile ticketing technology, Masabi and ACT are set to accelerate the use of mobile transport ticketing across the UK and beyond. 

Ben Whitaker, CEO of Masabi said: “Rolling out contactless mobile ticketing will provide greater convenience for transport users and reduce the cost of ticketing for operators. ACT is a proven innovator and digital transaction specialist and we are excited to have secured this relationship. Joining the ACT Cloud makes it easy for us to deploy a cost effective contactless mobile ticketing system across the UK transport network.”

Since the launch of ACT’s Cloud Partner Programme in September 2013, PayPoint Plc, Parkeon, Haven, TransaXiom, sQuid and RSL have already joined the programme to extend their services by plugging into ACT’s Cloud platform. Together, ACT and its Cloud Partners are extending ticket buying options for the convenience of UK passengers, and Masabi now adds mobile ticketing to the ACT Cloud platform.

ACT makes it simple to connect to its ticketing and payments cloud platform. All the communications, transaction processing and payments are managed in the ACT Cloud so retailers and suppliers of ticket vending machines and collection services don’t need to invest in additional hardware to gain contactless ticketing capability.

Gary Watts, CEO, ACT commented: “Masabi is an ideal mobile channel partner for ACT due to their extensive and complimentary experience in both bus and rail ticketing, both in the UK and USA. Together with our proven ticketing transactions and payments platform, we will bring contactless mobile ticketing to the UK. Passengers will be able to use their mobile phone as their ‘smart ticketing and payments card’ over the established and secure infrastructure created by Masabi and ACT.

“ACT’s Cloud Service has already made it simple and cost effective for our partners to extend their services to include smart ticketing and passengers are now starting to enjoy the benefits of extended retail channels and ticket collection points.”