If you ever wanted a reason to get your hands on a Nokia device, the Finnish company has entered into an agreement with the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to develop an NFC-based ticketing solution, whose pilot program is expected to make its debut on regional commuter trains by the end of 2011. Given that we’re about 2 months away from the end of year, it looks like commuters looking forward to pay for their tickets via NFC will not be in for a long wait.
Unfortunately it looks like Symbian Nokia phones will be the ones enjoying this particular feature first, with the Symbian-based Nokia 603 being the first Nokia phone to receive the NFC card emulation update. The rest of Nokia’s Symbian phones are expected to receive the update next year in 2012.
For those wondering what about Nokia’s recently launched Windows Phone, it seems that there are no plans at the moment for Nokia’s Windows Phone devices to be included in this program, especially since neither the recently announced Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 come with NFC technology.
Filed in . Read more about New York, NFC, Nokia, Public Transport and Symbian.