HID becomes first certified ticketing solution provider globally

HID Global became the world’s first ticketing solution provider to be certified to deliver more secure, lower cost, faster contactless tickets based on an open standard called Calypso Light Application (CLAP). The company had to pass the technical evaluation that was conducted by Elitt, a CNA-accredited laboratory. 

Cesare Paciello, Vice President, Ticketing & Transport with HID Global

“HID Global is bringing a new level of trust to low-cost contactless tickets for public transportation by supporting an open standard that will overtake the proprietary memory cards commonly used for low-end tickets, such as single trip tickets,” said Cesare Paciello, Vice President, Ticketing & Transport with HID Global. “Being the first ticket provider in the world to achieve Calypso Light Application certification positions HID strongly to lead the way to enable mid-sized and smaller public transportation networks to do next-generation automated fare collection.”

HID has been working with Calypso technology since 2014, resulting in the development of the SOMA Atlas, an OS architecture that combines the multi-application capabilities of the KIAT operating system with the Calypso 3.1 standard. HID achieved its first Calypso certification in July 2016 with SOMA Atlas V1, which proved to be one of the fastest products of its kind.

Recognized widely and deployed in many countries for secure, fast and flexible ticketing, Calypso is an open standard of contactless ticketing, suitable for multiple applications, especially public transportation in which Calypso cards and NFC mobile phones are used. To extend the success of the Calypso standard and help solve the incompatibility of low-cost tickets, a worldwide group of transport operators in the Calypso Networks Association, a not-for-profit standards body, ratified a set of specifications for the Calypso Light Application standard.