Jupiter Research recently reported that transport based mobile ticketing is estimated to grow to over 1.8 billion by 2011, from a mere 37.4 million, as of 2007. The Far East and china are expected to take up 73 percent of the total number of transactions world over.

 

Juniper Research (News - Alert) provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary. They have brought out the present situation that mobile ticketing and coupons are in and the near-future scenario. This has been supported by a concrete analysis and many interviews from representatives of some of the leading organizations in this industry.

 

Rail and air travel have been found to be most active in this respect. Rail in particular has very strong activity in the mobile ticketing transport sector across Western Europe, North America and the Far East and China regions.

 

Many of the operators who had started this service as pilot projects and marketing activities are fast replacing them by real commercial ones, owned by the ticketing and coupon owners such as Ticketmaster and the travel organizations such as the IATA (International Air Travel Association).

 

Gavitec's mticketing work with Spanair Airlines in Spain is one such example, where mobile ticketing trials were highly successful. Here, passengers received a 2D code on their mobile phones, which functioned both as the ticket as well as a boarding pass.

 

According to the research, operating costs of the transport providers are to be decreased, by way of reduced staff and building space. This will ease the pressure on space within terminals for check-In desks. Mobile ticketing solutions allow the consumer to purchase and receive a ticket on the day of travel or the event. This means no standing in long queues, entrance through the VIP door, and a fast check-in.

 

Juniper research warns however, that many a hurdle have to still be overcome, like technology challenges in the area of the delivery and redemption of mobile barcodes and the use of NFC. Once this has been overcome, it will be easy to shift the entire system of storage of tickets and coupons to the mobile phone.

 

It is estimated that 2.6billion mobile tickets will be delivered by 2011 to 208million mobile phone users. The Far East and China region will become the biggest region, with a figure going a little below 697 million. Also, the airline industry will save around $500million a year if they migrate to mobile boarding passes.