12 Sep 2023

CNA 20th Anniversary: Calypso, A Technology That Goes Beyond Borders!

  • By Vappereau Philippe
  • In

As many of you know, 2023 is the 20th anniversary year for CNA. To celebrate, we are hosting an exclusive showcase of original artworks that you can discover each month, accompanied by anecdotes that have marked the history of Calypso's development.

Foreign ride Japanese print
CALYPSO, A TECHNOLOGY THAT GOES BEYOND BORDERS!  With more than 25 countries and 185 cities involved in Calypso Networks Association, our technology can be found across all four corners of the globe, and apparently across different eras too… Calypso isn’t just a technology to make transport ticketing simpler, it’s also a way of bringing together and connecting everyone across the transport ecosystem. It’s a technology that aims to go beyond borders in every sense of the word!

September’s anecdote: Good things come to those who wait!

Patience is a virtue, and there are many examples of this throughout Calypso’s long history! It’s important to remember there is a difference between when a technology is invented, and when it is adopted by the general public.

For example, take the mobile phone (the predecessor of the smartphone for our younger readers), we considered the possibility of using phones as tickets… back in 2002!

At the time, it seemed like the perfect idea for facilitating the future of public transport travel.

We were so confident in this development that we were able to test it out as early as 2007, on a gate in the Paris metro that could be unlocked using the equivalent of an application, which of course used Calypso’s technology.

It’s just a short step from 2007 to 2023, although the popularity of this method is recent, one must never forget that these ideas and inventions were tested and conceived much earlier than we might imagine!

Thank you for being part of our community and for joining us on this thrilling ride. Get ready to witness the unfolding of a future that promises to amaze and inspire. Stay tuned…

In the meantime, check out our rest of the exhibition! View more.