NFC payment for train and bus fares
The usage of Near Field Communication (NFC) for payment is a convenient method. But this innovation technology is going to fail once again even with the pushed by IDA.
WHY?
The reason is simple and boiled down to dollars and cents and others as highlighted below.
1. Consumers will not be paying $37.45 to purchase a NFC Sim Card to use the contactless payment.
2. The e-wallet had a validity of 5 years only. Isn’t this a scheme to made more money from the consumers
3. Payment of $5 EZ Link registration fee. But I believe most telcos will wave it off.
4. Limited number of NFC smartphones to support the application.
In view of the above reasons, the project will not going to be a successful. But if NFC Sim Card are provided free of charge to consumers, then it will be a viable project. Our telcos will not absorb the charges unless the government paid for it.
EZ Link cannot even made its current app to work on all NFC enable smartphones to check their EZ-Card value. I am not confident on how they are going to made this a success. They still have a lot to learn from how HongKong partner on the Octpus Card.
We will update the feasibility of this project in a year time.