Transport News

Helsinki City Transport Company together with mobile service provider Plusdial Ltd offers the passengers in Helsinki City metro, trams and ferry traffic a unique new way of purchasing tickets. The system called Mobile Ticketing has been a great success: one million sold tickets magic limit was broken on December 30th 2002 and the sales are still steadily growing and have exceeded all estimates. A single adult ticket can be ordered in Helsinki metro, trams and ferry traffic by sending an SMS message to a short number server. The ticket is then received as a return SMS message in just a few seconds. According to a survey carried out last fall 92% of the users gave excellent rating to the service.

The service provider, Plusdial Ltd, is currently negotiating with several large European cities transport companies to deliver the service also to the European market. In today’s growing traffic in the European metropolis the Mobile Ticketing Service offers a way to encourage the use of public transportation.

Jarmo Riikonen, Leading Fare Planner in Helsinki City Transport Company states: ”The popularity of the Mobile Ticket is based on its fast and easy availability. We wanted to improve our customer service by offering our passengers a purchasing system without queuing or searching for ticket outlets. Most of our customers have a mobile phone in their pocket.”

The leading magazine in advertising and marketing in Finland, Markkinointi ja Mainonta, awarded Mobile Ticketing System the best Mobile Service in Finland in 2002. The Mobile Ticket Service in Helsinki received also world wide attention when BBC Word News featured the Mobile Ticket in their documentary in September 2002.

Plusdial is a global Mobile Ticketing Service Provider with leading positions in the Mobile Ticketing Services and Advanced Mobile Ticketing Security.

Further information: Plusdial Ltd, Phone +358 9 2517 3071 and www.plusdial.net
Helsinki City Transport Company, Phone +358 9 47211 and www.hel.fi/hkl