Mobile ticketing is the process whereby customers order, pay for, obtain, and validate

ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a to ...

s using

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s. A mobile ticket contains a verification unique to the holder's phone. Mobile tickets reduce the production and distribution costs associated with paper-based ticketing for operators by transferring the burden to the customer, who is required to contribute the cost of the physical device (

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

) and

internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...

to the process. As a result of these prerequisites, and in contrast to paper-based systems, mobile ticketing does not follow the principles of

universal design Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible to people, regardless of age, disability, or other factors. It emerged as a rights-based, anti-discrimination measure, which seeks to create design ...

. Mobile tickets should not be confused with e-tickets, which are simply tickets issued in

electronic form Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

, independent of a specific device and in a standard, intelligible format, that can be printed and used in paper form. While a mobile phone is compatible with an e-ticket, mobile ticketing is a distinct system. There are several methods of implementing a mobile ticketing system, with varying degrees of complexity and transparency depending on the underlying technology. Mobile tickets may lessen the potential for scalping (touting) and fraud.

History

The QR code was created by a subsidiary of the Japanese automotive company

Denso is a global automotive components manufacturer headquartered in the city of Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. After becoming independent from Toyota Motor, the company was founded as in 1949. About 25% of the company is owned by Toyota. Despi ...

in 1994.

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

and

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

developed

near-field communication Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be used for the boots ...

(NFC) in 2002. It is based on

radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically Automatic identification system, identify and Tracking system, track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, ...

(RFID) technology and enables short-range communication between electronic devices. Philips published an early paper on NFC in 2004, while the NFC Forum was established in the same year. The

GSMA The GSM Association (GSMA) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit trade association that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More than 750 mobile operators are full GSMA members and a further 400 companies in the bro ...

published a whitepaper on M-Ticketing in 2011, having commissioned research to examine the opportunities for network operators in a mobile ticketing market. The research was focused on a specific NFC system based on the UICC, which is owned and controlled by the network operator that issues it, and other technologies such as

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

and

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...

were given passing consideration in the report. The first mobile ticketing deployment for a public transport operator in the UK was for Chiltern Railways in 2007. The first transit agency in the US to deploy mobile ticketing was Boston's

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

in 2012, while the first system in Australia was

Adelaide Metro Adelaide Metro is the public transport system of the Adelaide area, around the capital city of South Australia. It is an intermodal passenger transport, intermodal system offering an integrated network of Buses in Adelaide, bus, Glenelg tram, ...

in 2017. The

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

partnered with

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, LLC is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Ente ...

in 2015 and adopted a new ticketing policy the following year. The option of a print-at-home e-ticket (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

), which was popular among fans for its convenience, was replaced by a mobile ticketing system. In 2017, the state of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

passed a law that requires venues to make printed, paper tickets available to customers and provide a means to transfer tickets without restrictions. In 2019, a mobile-only ticketing system developed by Ticketmaster was installed in stadiums across the NFL, based on the Presence platform developed by the company in 2017. The platform is an access control system and marketing tool involving personalized digital tickets and

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of ...

software. The mobile-only version of the system, SafeTix, links the tickets to individual smartphones and was adopted by the vast majority of NFL franchises due to Ticketmaster's position as primary ticket partner of the league. The

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

received praise from several organizations, including the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, for not adopting mobile-only ticketing, while fans across the league experienced delays and refusals of entry due to a range of issues with the system. The

All England Club The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Gr ...

implemented mobile ticketing with an online-only ballot and a ban on ticket transfers for the

2021 Wimbledon Championships The 2021 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom, the first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. N ...

, citing

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

protocols developed by the SGSA. The policy was criticized by Age UK for lacking an offline option. A number of

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

clubs adopted a mobile-only policy for the 2021–22 season, resulting in problems accessing their respective grounds and pushback from supporters' groups.

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

gave its fans the option of a photographic smart card for those without an NFC-enabled phone. ID cards of any form are controversial among football supporters and have been rejected by English fans in the past. For the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

season, the NFL is mandating mobile-only ticketing across the league. The mandate removes the option to issue paper tickets for the few franchises that had not enforced a mobile-only policy, and codifies the requirement for every fan to own a smartphone and grant access to it in order to attend a game. A fifth of Americans do not own a smartphone, either by choice or due to constraint.

Methods

There are several methods of implementing a mobile ticketing system, depending on the technology used. In a system based on

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

, the user receives their ticket in the form of either an

alphanumeric Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are any collection of number characters and letters in a certain language. Sometimes such characters may be mistaken one for the other. Merriam-Webster suggests that the term "alphanumeric" may often ...

code or a barcode. In a process based on a

mobile application A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

, the user carries out a transaction through the app and receives a verification, such as a QR code, specific to their account. Where NFC technology is used, a ticket is issued in the form of a discreet token generated by emulation software on the user's phone itself.

Privacy and transparency

The operation of a mobile ticketing system raises issues of

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

. The harvesting of personal

data point In statistics, a unit of observation is the unit described by the data that one analyzes. A study may treat groups as a unit of observation with a country as the unit of analysis, drawing conclusions on group characteristics from data collected a ...

s enables an operator to model, predict, and potentially modify, the behavior of a customer. The implementation of

OMNY OMNY ( , short for One Metro New York) is a contactless payment, contactless fare payment system, currently being implemented for use on transportation in New York City, public transit in the New York metropolitan area. OMNY can currently be u ...

, a contactless fare payment system for public transport in New York City, has provoked a number of concerns related to

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

data security Data security or data protection means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach. Technologies Disk encryption ...

, and transparency in the usage of passengers'

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

. The system, which uses NFC technology, collects significant amounts of user data, including device identifiers and

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

es, locations of entry, billing addresses, and payment information.

References

{{Mobile phones Mobile technology Travel technology Tickets

History

Methods

Privacy and transparency

See also

References