SINGAPORE – If your mobile phone is among a list of 19 phones from Samsung, Sony and LG, you can now use it to pay for your MRT, LRT and bus rides.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and EZ-Link said in a joint statement today (March 29) that they have concluded a joint trial with telecommunications operators and public transport operators on the use of mobile phones with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to make public transport payments.
Users with the new NFC SIM cards can now pay for their rides with compatible mobile phones.
List of mobile phones approved for use with EZ-Link NFC SIM
- LG Optimus G
- LG Optimus G Pro
- Samsung GALAXY ACE 3 With LTE
- Samsung GALAXY Note II LTE
- Samsung Galaxy Note 5 4G+
- Samsung GALAXY Note Edge 4G+
- Samsung GALAXY S III
- Samsung GALAXY S III LTE
- Samsung Galaxy S6 4G+
- Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ 4G+
- Samsung Galaxy S7 4G+
- Samsung Galaxy S7 edge 4G+
- Sony Xperia Z
- Sony Xperia Z2
- Sony Xperia Z3
- Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
- Sony Xperia Z5
- Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
- Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
Users of the new SIM card, which has an embedded ez-link purse, will also be able to pay for purchases and taxi rides with their phones at more than 30,000 ez-link acceptance points island-wide, according to the statement.
The new SIM card is a “next generation” card compared to the NFC SIM launched in 2012 by IDA and EZ-Link. That card was “designed only for retail acceptance”.
Telecomms operator M1 said in a separate statement that its customers will be able to change their SIM cards to the NFC transit SIM at M1 Shop outlets starting today. Its card will also be integrated with the M1 Prepaid MasterCard.
M1 said that its NFC transit SIM card will cost $37.45, but service activation fee of $9.10 will be waived for customers signing up from tomorrow to April 30.
Singtel said in its statement that it will start to sell its transit NFC SIM cards “in late April” at “prevailing SIM rates with no additional costs”. The $5 ez-link registration fee will be waived “for a limited time”, it said.
sinsh@sph.com.sg
