Watchdata Supplies One of China´s Largest Contactless Transportation Cards: The ´Shenzhen Tong´ Project

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Watchdata Supplies One of China´s Largest Contactless Transportation Cards: The ´Shenzhen Tong´ Project: 2008-10-02; Beijing, China- Watchdata System Co. Ltd., one of the world’s leading suppliers of smart card solutions has provided Shenzhen Tong Ltd., more than 1.5 million transportation cards as of August 2008. Shenzhen Tong Co. Ltd. is the public transportation company of the city of Shenzhen, which is located to the north of Hong Kong. Shenzhen is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and has the second busiest port in mainland China, ranking only after Shanghai. Its population is around twelve million including floating residents. It is one of the earliest cities in China to upgrade its transportation system to use smart card technology.

Watchdata is a pioneer in providing contactless smart card and contactless technology solutions in the transportation industry. Shenzhen Tong transportation cards provided by Watchdata are multi-application cards used to pay for transit fares as well as to pay for goods in stores. In the transportation sector, the metro and more than 10,000 buses have been upgraded to use Shenzhen Tong cards. Moreover, in the micropayment sector, more than 500 supermarkets, shopping malls and convenience stores already use “Shenzhen Tong” cards for payments up to ¥1,000 or around $150.

Watchdata uses its very own CPU card operating system to improve the level of security and allow multi-application capability to the all-in one Shenzhen Tong transportation card.
Shenzhen Tong realized that the use of memory-based card is not as reliable and cost effective compared to CPU contactless card. For this reason, Shenzhen Tong decided that CPU contactless card is the way to go now and towards the future.

By the year 2011, Shenzhen Tong Co. Ltd. plans to deploy the Shenzhen Tong card fully in all metro and public transportations buses. Future deployments will also extend to private rental cars and retailers targeting to exceed 3,000 stores. Overall, more than eight million cards are expected to be issued within the next three years. Watchdata will continue to be the top provider for the project.

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