Mobile Ticketing in the Greater Paris region

On November 25, 2019, the Paris Great Region and Ile de France Mobility Authority launched the Via Navigo mobile application, which allows to purchase and validate your travel pass with your smartphone, thanks to Calypso.

With Via Navigo, travelers can now buy and validate their one way tickets, Navigo travel pass for a day, a week or a month and the Orly Bus – Roissy Bus tickets directly on their smartphone. This modernization of the Ile de France ticketing system has been carried out without any replacement or update of the 35.000 validators already deployed in buses, trams, metro and train stations in Ile-de-France.

Navigo is based on the Calypso standard, which makes easier the integration of ticketing solutions on smartphones. All the equipment that includes Calypso can manage traditional Navigo contactless cards and NFC smartphones, indiscriminately and with the same level of security, using the Calypso software application, the so called Applet, integrated into a secure component of the phone.Thus, in Paris Great Region, the service is offered to Orange and Sosh mobile operators’ clients and Samsung smartphone holders, both of whom have chosen to integrate the Calypso Applet into whether their SIM card or Secure Element. It represents therefore approximately five million smartphones eligible for a more convenient digital service, which meets the needs of all travelers, regular or occasional users and facilitates access to public transport.Other mobile operators or phone providers can further expand the number of eligible smartphones by choosing to integrate the Calypso Applet, which is a generic software developed by Calypso Networks Association (CNA) available for all, and thus offer the service to the greatest number of travelers.

One of the major interests of a mobile ticketing application based on the Calypso Applet is its capacity to emulate a card with the same security, offering a solution easy to deploy at an optimal cost, and to allow any travelers to validate at any moment, even with a switch off or discharged phone.This simple implementation of the smartphone ticket is a first step for IDFM. Other steps will follow to propose other technological solutions adapted to other profiles and uses of travelers. Calypso’s wealth is precisely in offering the widest possible range of solutions, the most innovative of the moment, to operators who have chosen this standard.

“IDFM is delighted to be a member of CNA and to be able to participate in the work on Calypso. This standard ensures the sustainability of a robust, innovative, open and multi-vendor offer, which is the pillar of Navigo and at the heart of our future developments. IDFM hopes that the strengthened link with CNA will enable passengers and the transport industry as a whole to benefit from the widest possible range of services.“

CNA’s goal is to enable the acceptance of all NFC smartphones on all Calypso networks, which means more than 150 cities and regions around the world.