• RFID is the beginning of a new digital revolution, where the whole physical environment will be one big internet. Many physical objects will be tagged with RFID, while many personalised applications will evolve to use the new near-field communication standard to converge with our mobile phone and the internet. This is not that far off if governments get their way and all cars are fitted with an IP address that can be traced via GPS.

Christian van ‘t Hof, researcher at the Dutch Rathenau Institute which is investigating the impact of RFID on behalf of the European Parliament

• For us it was important that the cards handled multiple frequencies so if somebody was issued with a card in London, they could use that same card in New York where the technology operates in a different part of the radio spectrum.

Doug Williams, vice president of engineering, Zipcar

• I believe any single company can use RFID in some way or other, whether it is at the employee level, the product level, or the asset tracking level. That said, RFID is not always necessarily the right answer. If companies have neither barcoding nor RFID they should definitely consider both.

Nigel Montgomery, research director for AMR Research

• The recent Commission decision that provides harmonised conditions and legal certainty for the availability of radio-spectrum for UHF RFID devices is crucial to ensure a proper functioning of the internal market.

Gerald Santucci, head of unit networked enterprise & RFID at the European Commission’s DG Information Society

• The decisions about what type of RFID technology to deploy, passive, active, or semi-active, and other factors – such as the communications infrastructure, will all affect the deployment decision.

David Hytch, director of consulting, LogicaCMG’s UK transport division

• I would strongly advise IT managers to review the management of the entire system, from the access card at the front-end, but more importantly the back-end systems that control that.

Ken Munro, managing director, SecureTest

• All the hype surrounding RFID is a load of rubbish. If companies spent less time talking to consultants a lot more would get done.

Richard Fry, systems director, Loadhog Lids

• The early view was that RFID would only be a supply chain technology. Now, 55 per cent of our visitors are looking for improved asset tracking, compared with the 25 per cent of visitors trying to find supply chain solutions.

Kevin Kelly, marketing manager, RFID Centre