Innovative payment solutions are not available everywhere in the world at the same time. While Londoners have been able to use NFC payments for public transport since last year, New York residents will have to wait at least a few more years before this functionality comes to fruition.
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NFC Payments Are Difficult To Implement
Depending on where one lives in the world, NFC payment capability may or may not have been available for quite some time now. One of the biggest aspects where NFC payments will make a significant impact in the world of public transportation as these small transactions need to be paid quickly, and preferably in a contactless manner too.
Over in New York, that type of functionality will not be made available for public transportation purposes anytime soon. Despite the modern appeal of New York City, revamping the entire payment ecosystem in the region is a bigger challenge than initially assumed. There are plans to replace the existing MetroCard readers with NFC terminals, and the MTA opened up the bidding process for this project.
One of the issues with this bidding process is how contracts are designed to last 69 months, which gives interested parties until the end of 2021 to finalize the project. This is rather disappointing news for consumers who were looking forward to using NFC payments when taking a bus or train in the New York City area.
It is interesting to note the MTA will pick up 100% of the costs associated with this project, although bidders will need to display they are capable of completing every single aspect of this entire undertaking. That includes setting up the network to deal with NFC payments. So far, the estimated costs for this project are ranging between US$10m and US$450m.
Residents in the New York City area who had been looking forward to using the Plutus app when it is released later this year will be out of luck. Or at least as far as public transportation is concerned, as most store shave NFC capabilities already. Plutus will let anyone spend Bitcoin at NFC terminals, and it will be interesting to see how this project fares in New York.
Source: Engadget
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