Manchester City Football Club has successfully completed a mobile ticketing trial but cannot offer the service until next-generation handsets are developed.

The Premiership club equipped 30 fans at the beginning of the season with radio frequency-enabled (RF) phones that use near-field communication (NFC) technology to store ticket information and open stadium turnstiles when held against a contactless reader.

‘The trial proved the technology works and the feedback from fans of all ages has been positive,’ said Duncan Martin, head of retail at Manchester City. ‘We must now wait on the development of mobile phones equipped to accept NFC.’

‘But the scheme is ready to launch and we believe that eventually more mobile phones will be used to gain entry to the stadium than smartcards,’ he said.

Season ticket data can be written to the RF chips, but supporters can also purchase single tickets where data is transmitted from the turnstiles to the phone.

‘When a fan buys a single ticket, such as to a cup game, the information is sent from the database to the turnstile,’ said Martin.

‘When the fan passes through the turnstile, the information is written to the chip.’

NFC technology has already been proven, and has been used in Japan for more than two years, says Peter Harrop, chairman of RFID analyst ID TechEx.

‘The technology is ready but there have been problems in determining standards for downloading smartcard information to phones because it is intellectual property,’ he said.

‘But NFC is more convenient as it reduces the need for separate smartcards, can provide updates and tell people how much value remains. The killer application is travel cards such as Oyster.’