Cashless payment by mobile phone at the pay stations of Scheidt & Bachmann

The interface needed for the utilization of M-Pay at the pay station was developed by Scheidt & Bachmann. When paying with M-Pay, acoustic signals are used for information transfer for handling the payment process. This makes every mobile phone and every mobile transmission network principally suitable for payment with the M-Pay system. However, it is necessary that the provider supports the M-Pay service and that a functioning mobile phone network is available to the pay station.

Handling is very straightforward. The customer inserts his parking ticket as usual into the ticket slot of the pay station. The amount due appears on the display. The customer now dials on his mobile phone the phone number shown on the pay station. The reply is given by the M-Pay service centre. The customer complies with the instructed steps. For paying he presses the relevant identification code and then enters the amount due into his mobile phone. The computer of the M-Pay service centre accepts these figures and then builds up a data connection to the M-Pay module (acoustic coupler), located on the front panel of the pay station. The customer holds his mobile phone very closely to the M-Pay module so that the paying procedure is authorized between the Service Centre and the mobile phone. This information exchange is controlled by the computer of the service centre. As soon as the green lamp on the M-Pay module is lighted, the payment action has been performed in good order. The pay station then receives the finished message from the M-Pay module and then returns the paid parking ticket. The customer also gets a receipt.
The paying transaction appears on the mobile phone invoice and will also be settled by it. If the customer has a prepaid account, the payment will be deducted from this account directly.
The high security of this procedure is ensured by the mobile phone network, by additional data encoding and by an optional PIN code on the mobile phone.