April 28, 2007
Pitroda's Firm Brings Railway Ticketing
to Mobiles
Chicago
Two decades ago when Sam Pitroda introduced computerization to
railway ticketing, he was greeted with skepticism and derision by
politicians and labor leaders. They thought he wanted to replace
humans with machines.
Now in 2007, the same Indian Railways has enthusiastically embraced
Pitroda's mobile transaction technology that enables ticketing
directly from cell phones.
His Oak Brook, Illinois-based technology company C-SAM's mobile
ticketing solution has just gone live for Indian Railways, which
transports around five billion passengers a year.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp Ltd (IRCTC), a division
of Indian Railways which issues tickets to about 15 million
passengers daily, now offers "IRCTCmobile" services to provide
"cutting-edge technology" powered by C-SAM, improving customer
convenience, security and flexibility.
The IRCTCmobile launch has the potential to become the first mass
market adoption of a technology which is considered unrivalled in
terms of the number of mobile applications it offers.
For a country that adds some seven million mobile phones a month and
could see the number of total mobile phones rise to a staggering 500
million by 2010 from the current 200 million, mobile applications
are the most effective way to capitalize on such unprecedented
connectedness.
"The launch of IRCTCmobile using C-SAM technology signals one of the
first large scale, mass market secure transaction applications
anywhere in the world to capitalize on the growing mobile phone
market," according to C-SAM's official statement issued here.
"With over two and a half billion mobile phones in service
worldwide, C-SAM's platform is ideally positioned to deliver various
secure transaction applications for carriers, banks and merchants.
"IRCTCmobile allows passengers to perform various services such as
book tickets using credit and cash cards, view train schedules,
check availability, get fares, perform inquiries and access many
other associated information services through mobile phones," the
company said.
"The railway ticketing application is part of a web service-based
platform that includes other services such as mobile banking, bill
payments, P2P, advertising, coupons, NFC etc., offered by C-SAM, a
leading technology company headquartered in the US, with a strong
presence in India," the company said.
With the portfolio of eight issued patents and more than 20 pending
applications that cover a range of financial and non-financial
transaction services on mobile phones, C-SAM is considered a leader
in the particular technology space.
"IRCTCmobile is a great example of how the most advanced mobile
technology can be deployed to benefit the masses, including people
at the bottom of the pyramid," said Pitroda.
He also said C-SAM and IRCTC are exploring ways to introduce a wide
range of other new services on mobile phones, including issuance of
loyalty coupons, advertising, pre-paid cards, m-commerce and travel
portals.
Indian Railways, which has acquired a new vigor under minister Lalu
Prasad Yadav, is expected to increasingly incorporate high
technology into a sector once considered moribund and labor
intensive.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
