i would suppose that one of the problems for breaking it
beyond the subway ticket market will be that it is a
prepaid system: you have to charge the card/phone
beforehand, so effectively you are already spending the
money before getting anything for it. (in contrast, with
post-paid systems like credit cards you are billed after
you made a purchase).
this is exactly the reason why the "GeldKarte" in
Germany never got off the ground despite the fact that
almost all German banks included the necessary chip
on their regular bank cards, so in theory there is an
installed base of tens of millions of GeldKarte
smartcards in germany - but hardly anybody uses it.
fleX
> Gerhard, Sorry if this is covered in the links you
mention below, but
> this is to give a short
> answer to Christopher :
Thanks Gerhard for the FAQ.
Thanks Benjamin for sifting through the info, and
providing a nice
brief! Too bad I don't have $475 to get more details ... ;)
> Edy has been used in AM/PM convenience stores for
a while (as well
> as in shops in Shinagawa where Sony has its
headquarters) but did not pick
> up too much because (in my opinion) people do not
feel the same need for
> speed in convenience stores than in the subway,
even if it is more convenient
> than cash.
Even though it seems speedy, and convenient (not
carrying around spare
change), I've never considered about buying an Edy
card. Actually I've
been here a year and a half, but don't even know how
to get one.
Anyone on the list have an Edy card?
> with the improvements made on FOMA recently.
Received on Fri Jun 25 11:13:35 2004