NFC & BLE Micro-Location Mobile Ticketing Solution
Deployment of NFC and BLE Beacons in the Public Transport Network
Deployment in the Porto Metro
The BLE beacons were deployed not within the train carriages themselves, but at the different stations. Based on the results of the field trial, more beacons were installed compared to the technology tests, as it was found that the BLE-beacon coverage with the originally planned number was not sufficient.
The mobile ticketing solution including the Anda Infrastructure was commercially deployed in buses, trains and the metro in 2018. Within 9 months of its launch, the Anda app had been downloaded over 270.000 times.
Integration in Buses
One BLE beacon per bus was found to be sufficient in order to provide the services of the anda mobile ticketing solution to customers. The beacon is placed near the front entrance of the bus. For double-decker buses, two beacons are placed, one at the front entrance and one at the rear of the bus. There are a total of 157 bus lines in Porto, of which 73 are publicly operated and 84 of which are privately operated, but all of which utilise the Anda solution.
Changing to a New System
In the solution deployment, the legacy of the existing transport system had to be dealt with in several ways. For example, old ticketing terminals had to be upgraded in order to be NFC-enabled for the solution to work as intented. Furthermore, the research found that it required supportive measures in order to teach the passengers how to utilise the new system, as well as inform them of the benefits for an effective implementation and transition to the new system to occur.