Road & Transport Authority (RTA) has announced its partnership with Du & Etisalat in UAE to provide NOL (ePurse) services via NFC technology and launched SMART NOL NFC application. Currently NOL (ePurse) has the 6 million active cards and people in Dubai using it for day to day for transportation purpose (buses, metro & marine bus). The concept is not new in the world the same products has been launched for transportation in Singapore, London & Hong kong. RTA is leading in region for this product so far if you compare with other GCC countries.
RTA CEO express about the importance and their expectation from SMART NOL (NFC BASED). Since they have 6 million cards and looks forward to have good adaptation from early adopters.
The next big thing which is alarming for VISA and MasterCard, American Express and others that RTA has started focusing on introducing micropayment in Dubai. The challenge its self its very big because in absence of VISA and MASTERCARD acquiring network for NOL, RTA has to build its own acquiring merchant network which accepts NOL for purchases. This makes sense due to high number of card members across UAE is using it for transportation.
The Smart Nol success is highly dependent on operators push and this will be make or break situation for RTA to enter in mobile payment market. Since both operator (DU & Etisalat) till today don’t have any approval from Central Bank UAE to start micropayments in UAE. This can be a good start for both of them to learn and own the NOL application and use it to build customer base for their upcoming financial service which includes mobile wallets, bill payments, mobile remittance & P2P.
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