500 million people worldwide to use their mobiles as metro and bus tickets by 2015

Half a billion people worldwide will use their mobile devices as travel tickets on metros, subways and buses by 2015, according to Juniper Research. This is over five times the number generated last year.

Significantly, Juniper expects usage to spread widely from the current concentration of users and providers in Japan and several European countries.

Outside Japan, systems in operation typically use SMS or bar codes, but near field communications is expected to start driving usage by 2013.

That makes sense, as transit tickets represent one of the most-obvious scenarios where a mobile device makes great sense as a mobile payment method. It is a repeated, routine type of purchase involving relatively small amount of money, in a setting where people are moving about, often in a hurry, and where a simple "waive and go" purchase method saves lots of time.

500 million people worldwide to use their mobiles as metro and bus tickets by 2015