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card.etc 6/5/03--germany http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.plACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/05-06-2003/0001940675&EDATE=TUE+May+06+2003,+02:00+

ASK Delivers 1.7 Million Contactless Cards for Largest Transit SmartCard Project in Europe
MADRID, Spain, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- UITP -- ASK S.A., the world
leader in
dual interface contactless smart cards, today announced that the
company has
already shipped 1.7 million contactless smart cards to the public
transport
associations, Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) and Verkehrsverbund
Rhein-Sieg
(VRS) located in the region of North-Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. VRR
and VRS,
representing 54 different transport operators, cover an area with a
total
population of 10.6 million inhabitants.VRR, with an extensive bus and
rail network, handles 1.1 billion passengers per year. The main cities
are Bochum, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and
Mulheim. VRS handles over half a billion passengers per year. The
major cities are Bergisch, Gladbach, Bonn, Cologne (Koln) and
Euskirchen. This is Germany's first and Europe's largest rollout of
smart cards in public transport.
ASK provided the cards for card.etc AG who is the general contractor
and
who is managing the project together with the KompetenzCenter EFM
(Automatic
Fare Collection) located at VRR in Gelsenkirchen. Smart cards, devices
and
background systems all have to work together. Matthias Salmon,
card.etc's
project manager, explained, "We chose ASK as the card supplier because
they
are specialists for public transport smart cards."
The ASK MV5100 cards include three different applications,
e-Ticket,
e-Purse and e-Market. The first step of the project, the introduction
of
e-Ticket, is revolutionary for the whole public transport sector.
Since
January 2003 the ASK cards have been delivered to yearly and monthly
ticket
holders. In a second step a broader range of services (e-Purse and
e-Market)
will be offered to the VRR/VRS customers and the card will become
truly
multifunctional. "This multi-functionality of the card guarantees a
high
utility for card holders," stated Thomas Herlin, project manager for
ASK.
The ASK MV5100 dual-interface contactless smart cards operate in full
contactless mode for transit applications, including support for
intermodal
travel (subway, light rail, buses and other public transport systems);
and
contacted mode for the e-Purse application. The ASK card is available
in eight
different designs with a re-writable film on the back of the card.
The cards comply with the VRR/VRS smart card specifications that were
developed by card.etc, based on the VDV (the association of public
transport
in Germany) core application, which is expected to become a standard
across
German public transport."The VRR smart card program embarks the public
transit sector in Germany on a new path. It also affirms the ISO 14443
open contactless standard as the underlying technical standard for
AFC," said Herlin. "We are understandablyproud that ASK cards were
selected for this ground-breaking project."
About ASK S.A.
Founded in 1997, ASK is today a world leader in the design,
development,
marketing and manufacturing of dual interface contactless smart cards.
ASK,
named one of the top 10 emerging technology companies in Europe, has
already
supplied more than 7 million contactless cards and paper contactless
tickets
that are in operation in more than 40 cities in Europe, Asia and
America.
Clients include SNCF and RATP in Paris; transit operators in Newark,
Toronto,
Lisbon, Lyon, Venice, Naples, Taipei and Nice and the Rhein-Ruhr
region; and
BMS, a project in France sponsored jointly by the financial services
and
transport industries. The ASK manufacturing and personalization
operations are
near Nice in Sophia Antipolis, France with commercial offices in
Paris, Hong
Kong and the USA. In October 2001 ASK announced that it acquired the
manufacturing assets for the Venus contactless smart cards developed
by
Motorola.C.ticket(R) is a registered trademark of ASK S.A.
About card.etc AG.card.etc AG, founded in 2000 and based in Langen
near Frankfurt, issuesand operates multifunctional chip card systems
with the PayCard e-Purse technology developed by Deutsche Telekom. In
2001 card.etc AG won the tender for the introduction of a smart card
system for the transport associations VRR (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr)
and VRS (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg). card.etc AG is the general
contractor for the smart card system. card.etc developed the smart
card and SAM specifications and is responsible for coordination of
allsmart card partners.For further information please contact Karin
Vogt +49 6103 571 322 [email protected]