Samsung Electronics joins OSPT Alliance

As a full member of the Alliance, Samsung says it will pursue the development of commercialised semiconductor products for next generation transit fare collection systems based on the CIPURSE open security standard. The CIPURSE open security standard addresses the need by transit authorities for future proof fare collection systems with more advanced security than currently in use. Because it is an open standard, CIPURSE promotes vendor neutrality, cross vendor system interoperability, lower technology adoption risks, higher quality and improved market responsiveness. CIPURSE also offers a global basis for a faster transition of transit fare systems to the use of emerging NFC mobile phones and other devices and support for the adoption of NFC transit applications for a truly future proof solution. Dojun Rhee, vice president of system LSI marketing, Samsung Electronics, said: "The open standard policy of the OSPT alliance raises the value of the CIPURSE based next generation transit fare collection system and is expected to play an important role in facilitating adoption of the new standard to smart card and NFC based transportation payment ecosystems." The OSPT Alliance is an international association chartered to define a new open standard for secure transit fare collection solutions. It provides industry education, creates workgroup opportunities and catalyzes the development and adoption of innovative fare collection technologies, applications and services. The Alliance was founded by Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon Technologies, INSIDE Secure and Oberthur Technologies. "Having Samsung join the OSPT Alliance as a full member marks an important milestone in our efforts to create an ecosystem of technology suppliers and others to develop new, interoperable transit fare collection solutions based on open-standard security, and demonstrates how open systems foster more flexible and cost effective solutions," said Laurent Cremer, executive director for the OSPT Alliance. "Samsung's implicit endorsement of the CIPURSE standard will help promote our vision of bringing all the benefits that result from an open, competitive marketplace to the public transport market."