microCash
Posted: Fri 5 August, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts 4 Comments »Yesterday I suddenly realised I wasn’t as organised as usual, and didn’t have the change necessary for buying my train ticket. (All due to the bloody carpet fitter insisting on being paid cash rather than cheque, but that’s another story entirely) Anyway, it made me think about technology that would actually be useful – in this instance mPay, or mobile (or in fact micro, depending on who you believe) payments.
The basic idea is that you have an extra chip in your mobile phone that is basically a payment system, and can either be used in a similar way to a Switch/Maestro card, where money comes directly from your bank account, or alternatively you can have these small amounts added to your monthly phone bill. The system is in use in Japan already as part of the DoCoMo network where it’s known as iMode (I wonder if Apple will sue for that brandname?) and seems to be taking off.
I know it would be a nightmare to implement at first, as there’d be one hell of a lot of infrastructure to put in place. Then again, a similar (although slightly more low-tech) method is already being used for car-parking in Edinburgh, so maybe there’s hope for the concept yet?
Ehhh. Can’t you just use Switch??
It’s already coming. You’ll be able to make purchases of up to £10 from your mobile with the cost being added to your phone bill. Last I heard it’s about 1 to 2 years away in the UK.
Yes, Gordon, I could use Switch – for a whole £2.50 return ticket. And queue at the station ticket office for ten minutes while some twunt in front of me tries to book a period return to Ulan Bator, travelling on a Friday in August with a stop-off in Moscow, and then objecting to the price and forgetting a) what cash is, b) what date it is, and c) why the ticket office won’t accept an out-of-date cheque guarantee card in their partner’s name.
A micropayment chip where you could either use it on the ticket machine (which also doesn’t take Switch) or even at the ticket-barriers themselves would make life easier. That’s all.
True mate – that would be easier. Me, I just jump on the train and if I don’t have cash, use switch to pay the ticket inspector.