This article reviews the work of the European TELEPAY project to develop a short-range mobile phone-based payment method for public transport. The project started by investigating the requirements of users and service providers, which covered technology, user information, ticket purchase, ticket data content, validation, inspection and security. The system was implemented and tested in several European cities in multi-modal public transport applications. Most customers were satisfied with the service and all sites demonstrated the efficiency of the technologies used. Economic viability could not be guaranteed but the financial risk is low: some issues remaining to be solved concerned clarity, robustness and reliability, cost and expansion of telecom services, and further developments to the services. Some legal aspects, especially data protection and payment transfer, need to be resolved.
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