Mobiles could be used for public services

The leader of one of the UK's leading councils for IT services has said mobile phones could take on many of the functions of smart cards.

Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Borough Council, said SIM cards could replace the chips that are used on smart cards. He predicted this would be the next big step in the development of smart cards for public services.

He was speaking at the Local e-Government Expo on 20 April. Bracknell Forest has been one of the leaders in developing smart cards for council services, and is the lead authority in the National Smart Card Project.

"The next generation of chip will not be put on a card; instead it will go on a SIM," Bettison said. "Instead of handing out cards we will hand out mobile phones."

He said that, while this is currently just an idea, he is confident that it could be developed. Some vendors are working with an RFID-based technology called near field communication that converges mobile phone and smart card technology. This creates the potential for a range of new applications.

"If you or I could think of it there is somebody out there who could design it," he said.

Bettison said one of the big advantages is that it could provide information on the location of the holder. One possible use could be for bus travellers, who could enter a number while at a bus stop and be told the estimated arrival time of the next bus.

Another could be for children with a lone parent who feared abduction by the other parent, a problem that Bracknell Forest has experienced. The child's phone could be programmed to register their location on the journey home from school, and if they deviate by more than a set amount – maybe a couple of hundred yards – it would automatically make a call to the parent who had custody.

Bracknell Forest has distributed 38,000 of its smart cards, named The Edge, to residents, many of them schoolchildren. Among other functions it can be used to pay for school meals, provide proof of age, act as a library card, provide entrance to the council's leisure facilities and acts a membership card for youth clubs. It is also an e-purse for selected shops.