Dubai By the end of the year, you will be able to use your mobile phones for Metro and public transport transactions.
Mohammad Yousuf Al Mudharreb, Director, United Automated Fare Collection Department at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), told XPRESS on Tuesday: "NOL will function as an inbuilt feature in compatible handphones. You can just touch the phone on the gates to enter or exit."
He said: "We are closely working with etisalat and du to come up with compatible handsets by the end of the year. Certain models of BlackBerry, Samsung and Nokia are ready already but are yet to be rolled out."
NFC handsets
According to Al Mudharreb, the new application will use Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology that enables communication between devices. Characterised by an intuitive "just touch" movement, the NFC device will serve like a contactless card to make payments. The application can also be used to top up balance.
The RTA official said the total number of daily NOL transactions has grown to 1.5 million in 2012, with five million NOL cards being issued as of March 2012. He said by year end, NOL can also be used to make payments or low-value purchases at some retailers.
Minimum balance
Al Mudharreb said anyone having a balance of less than Dh1.80 on their NOL cards will not be allowed to get onboard. "When you swipe your card, it does not know where you will be exiting. If the card has a minimum balance of Dh1.80, it will block the maximum fare of Dh5.80. The maximum negative value a card can accept is Dh4 which will be recovered when you top up the card again."
He said the daily cap of Dh14 does not cover the Gold card surcharge, but only the fare. "This means that a charge of Dh8.20 comprises a fare of Dh4.10 and a surcharge of an equal amount."
