Good news for those of us who use the T-Mobility in Barcelona and we don’t want to go with physical tickets or an Android: The virtual transport pass can also be used on the iPhone. This has been confirmed by the Barcelona transport authority and the European Commission: Apple must fully open up the NFC system on the iPhone.
After years of maintaining a more or less tight control over its ecosystem, Apple is being forced by Europe to open up a good part of the iPhone. Alternative stores to the App Store, USB C as a charging port, payments in apps from means other than Apple’s own, and, in the future, we will be able to use the iPhone’s NFC in apps other than Apple Pay. One of these will be T-Mobilitat, the transport application in Barcelona.
Android can validate trips from mobile, iPhone cannot. At the moment
iPhone users can only use the physical ticket
It is not that Apple prevents transport companies from using the iPhone as a validation method, but this option is restricted under the approval of the company. This means that applications such as those in Madrid or Barcelona are prevented from using NFC to validate trips on public transport: Apps are only used to load trips onto physical ticketsnot for use as virtual fertilizer.
Since Apple must release the NFC of the iPhone so that other applications other than Apple Pay can use it, services such as T-Mobilitat plan to take advantage of this release for virtual transport passes. According to a statement of the Autoritat del Transport Metropolitana de Barcelona (ATM), iPhone users will see the functions of the T-Mobilitat application comparable to those of Android.
Following Apple’s designation as the gatekeeper in Europe for the iPhone and iPad, the European Commission forced the company to open up part of its ecosystem. Initially, NFC was intended only for banks and their payment methods, but, following an objection from the Barcelona ATM, the European Commission confirmed that Apple You must add transport passes to the NFC release on iPhonesMargrethe Vestager herself confirmed that the commitments between Apple and Europe also relate to transport passes.
As confirmed by the Minister of Territory and President of ATM, Ester Capella:
“We are very pleased with this decision, as after much effort, more people will finally be able to benefit from T-Mobilitat. We have always defended the need for inclusive and accessible technology for all, and this is a major step forward in this direction.”
The virtual T-Mobilitat will be available on the iPhone app at the end of the year. This is expected to affect other transport entities that wish to have virtual passes on the iPhone, since Apple’s commitments to Europe are binding. We have no further news at the moment.
Cover image | Ivan Linares
More information | Metropolitan Transport Authority of Barcelona