TXT-a-Park success leads to formal commercial arrangement

Media release 19 May 2005

The growing demand for TXT-a-Park has led the three founding partners - Vodafone New Zealand Ltd, Cash Handling Systems and Synergy International - to formalise their commercial arrangement so the service can be more easily marketed and sold to local authorities and other parking providers. The agreement now clears the way for Telecom to introduce the service to its customers.

The service, which currently allows Vodafone customers to pay for their parking at selected machines using their mobile phone, now has a formal process in place to allow mobile operators, councils and parking operators to offer the service.

Vodafone New Zealand Ltd, Cash Handling Systems and Synergy International Ltd were all involved in the first trial of TXT-a-Park in Wellington early last year. The trial of 18 machines proved so successful that the Wellington City Council is now replacing most of its pay and display machines with text-capable machines that can also take cash and credit card payments.

In March this year Auckland City began a trial of non-cash payment for pay and display parking in Princes St , in the Auckland University precinct. The uptake on the machines has been 184% better than the Wellington trial, with customer uptake exceeding both Vodafone and the Council's expectations.

As Vodafone's manager responsible for TXT-a-Park, Dion Knill, puts it: “to say the student population has embraced the technology is an understatement.”

The parking application, built and hosted by Synergy, is based on IP developed by its Ericsson-Synergy joint venture. The system is designed to support access by multiple mobile operators and any number of councils. Telecom is currently working with Synergy to interface its billing system so that its mobile users will shortly be able to pay for their parking using their mobile phones.

Cash Handling Systems, New Zealand's largest supplier of parking machines, has integrated a GPRS dial-up modem into the new generation machine that communicates with Synergy's TXT-a-Park application. Additional functionality allows remote machine monitoring and fault reporting in real time. Advantages for councils include the ability to configure the machine remotely, programme different messages and parking fees or waive fees altogether for special events.

Billing systems for any telecommunication providers need to verify that the customer has available credit to make the payment while the transaction is underway. The Vodafone network supports the data communication between the machines and the application using GPRS technology. In introducing the service, Telecom will sign a commercial agreement with the TXT-a-Park partners and configure its billing system to work with the TXT-a-Park application.