Mobile parking is a new mobile service set-up by Mobile-for in partnership with Proximus (Belgacom Mobile) for the Belgian market. The transaction platform is based on a proven mobile parking payment system launched in all major cities in Estonia more than seven years ago. Besides Estonia, the solution is implemented in Slovenia, Norway and Ukraine as well as in a number of European cities. Also the USA will start with a pilot project the coming months. The solution has over the past years dramatically increased the revenue for parking operators and eased the parking payment process for drivers. The solution is offered as a service to organizations that operate on and off street parking assets, as well as municipalities.

Description of target users and groups

Citizens, visitors and companies

Technology solution

The technology is provided by best-in-breed components: - Hardware: Dell Enterprise servers; Juniper NetScreen firewalls; - Operating system: SuSe Linux Enterprise Server; - Database: ORACLE® 10g Enterprise Edition; - Internet and hardware hosting: Belgacom NetCentre. Certificates and assignments include Oracle Certified Master; Oracle DBA; SuSe Enterprise Server Beta Tester; HPUX and SUN Solaris certified administrators; 3COM Certified Network Architect; Cisco Certified Network Administrator.

Technology choice: Mainly (or only) open standards

Main results, benefits and impacts

Mobile parking offers an elegant and fast way to dramatically improve citizens’ satisfaction and increase parking revenue through improved management of existing infrastructure and simplified operations. The solution based mobile technology, hardware and software platform simply extend current parking payment model/ channels and provide another channel that is bound to - as the adoption and the reach grow - become the principal way of collecting parking fees. The mobile payment solution is particularly an interesting product for large cities and local/ regional governments and other organizations which operate on and off street parking and are looking for ways to significantly increase parking collections with minimal additional cost outlay. The system is based on proven proprietary technology and uses existing software applications from NOW! Innovation who has a license agreement with Mobile-for in Belgium. The success of the product is related to its simplicity. Against this background, a number of cities in Belgium are taking actions to implement Mobile Parking. Reduction of P&D maintenance and coin collection costs with 35%. Reduction of paper costs P&D machines with 25%. More parking incomes and revenues for the city (35% increase). More accurate payment of citizens. Payment via mobile phone bill. Future developments toward off-street parking and combination with park and ride/eventtickets.

Return on investment

Return on investment: €49-299,000

Lessons learnt

The success of Mparking is guaranteed when it is rolled-out on a national scale and in a simple way. Taking this background into account the following requirements are a conditio sine qua non to be successful: Simplicity of use for the end-users; full access for all mobile phone users (pre- and post paid); fast confirmation to end-user that the parking time starts/stops; no subscription fee; privacy guaranteed; accessible for the 3 telecom operators; speed to market.

Scope: International