The arrival of the Navigo Pass on iPhone is long overdue, but it could finally end up being available. Indeed, Apple ended up agreeing to use NFC technology to make its smartphones compatible with RATP terminals, in addition to complying with French law. Deployment is expected before the start of the Olympics.
Samsung smartphone users were the first to take advantage of it. Since 2019, they can dematerialize their Navigo Pass on their phone, then pass it on the terminals to access public transport in the Ile-de-France region. The rest of the Android manufacturers ended up following suit in October 2022. And on the iPhone side? We are still waiting.
The arrival of the dematerialized Navigo Pass at Apple was first announced for February 2021, before being postponed to this year. In question, Apple’s refusal to use NFC technology to connect to RATP terminals, for fear of overshadowing its own solution implemented at Apple Pay. After several years of negotiations, the company finally gave in to the demands of Île-de-France Mobilités. But there was still an obstacle to the deployment of the tool.
The Navigo Pass will be available on iPhone before the Paris Olympics
According to the Informed, there were still some legal disputes to be settled. Last year, the prefect of the Île-de-France region, Marc Guillaume, filed an appeal against the agreement between Apple and IDFM, judging that the latter did not respect several points of French law. Since then, Apple has therefore shown its credentials, by rectifying the problematic passages and by translating the contract into French. In other words, everything is now operational for the arrival of the Navigo Pass on the iPhone.
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A boon for IDFM, which hopes to set up the system before the launch of the Paris Olympics on July 26, 2024. According to a spokesperson for the organization, “This purely administrative episode did not call into question the commissioning deadline. All lights are green. We are very confident of an effective launch in early 2024.”
Source: The Informed