How mobile technology is removing barriers to travel

Beijing railway station

In July 1997, says Dave Ashton, CEO of Loco2I was a new analyst for the tech consulting firm Accenture. My boss’s client, China Telecom, had asked us to aid in a spin-out IPO of their mobile unit and so I was sent to Beijing to work on the project.

My grunt work job was to call federal governments in the world’s most developed countries in an attempt to forecast the growth potential of China’s mobile market, which at the time had a penetration rate of .001%.

“Hello, Mr Swedish Communications minister’s Office Intern, I’m calling from Accenture. What is mobile phone penetration in your country today, what was it from 1990-95 and what will it be from 1997-2005?”, I would ask.

The 4th floor workspace given us for the project didn’t have a landline, ironic since we were working at that phone company. We had to buy three Nokia bricks to do our work. It was the first time I’d used a cell phone. It cost nearly £3 (€3.40) a minute per call and I had to stick my head out the window in the sweltering summer heat just to get a signal that dropped about half the time.

I gathered data for a few weeks and we crunched the numbers: Mobile phone penetration in China would grow steadily to somewhere around 6% by 2005, we told the world (it turned out to be about six times that). But privately I didn’t believe a word of it.

“Cellular technology is shit and no one can afford it anyway”, I told my wife during one of our daily (landline) calls from my Beijing hotel to our apartment in San Francisco. “It will never penetrate the mass market.” When I finished the project two months later the phone bill was $2800 (€2371.47).

I’ve perhaps never been so right and so wrong at the same time. As the French say, “Zat’s life.” But I’m pretty confident I’m correct now in believing that in 20 years 2018 will be viewed as a seminal year for the way we all travel. All thanks to the technology in that Nokia brick from 1997.

Why? Because mobile data access, devices, apps, services and GPS have all converged to make travel cheaper and easier in a way that was previously unimaginable.

Mobile data: Enabling travellers to stay connected

A data revolution happened in 2017. Until last year, when leaving France (where I live) I had to turn off mobile roaming when I arrived at any border. Leaving it on meant risking things like this. But turning it off cut off everything that makes modern travel both possible and enjoyable.

I, therefore, had to plan all travel outside France in advance and calibrate everything to ensure all would go smoothly. It was stressful, inconvenient, and at times quite frustrating.

But in May 2017 all mobile roaming charges in Europe were abolished. Such a simple change has made all the difference. Now we can travel anywhere in the European Union (EU) and use all the mobile tools that have come to represent the heart of the travel management experience: Finding a hotel or Airbnb, calling an Uber, booking a train on Loco2 and checking if it’s on time, or using probably the most important travel service in human history: Google Maps.

Mobile data also enables travellers to stay in touch with friends, family or colleagues. It is particularly beneficial for business travellers who rely on technology to work efficiently and need to be online at all times. When visiting a European country from the UK, you can take advantage of free app-based video call tools such as Whatsapp or Skype. In other words, we now need mobile data to live, and the law change of 2017 allowed us to do that. It will change your life too.

Real-time mobile data: Enhancing the travel experience

Over the last 20 years the quality and availability of mobile services has improved in a correlated way with the cost of data. Real-time travel-related services are more dependent on the cost of that data than almost all others. Now that such data is essentially free in Europe, you’ll begin to see another – potentially exponential – leap in the quality of travel services you can access via mobile.

What’s more, the opening of data throughout Europe means apps will start delivering valuable mobile services in better, more proactive ways.

Some examples of this are:

  • Alerting you in real- time if your train’s platform changes, or if it’s late: rather than consulting a web or mobile app directly, you’ll just receive a push notification
  • Live customer support directly from the mobile application. No numbers to call or emails to send
  • Notifying you which train cars have empty seats in them, maximising your chances of getting one

Technology in travel: Championing consumers

Gone are the days where travellers had to print train tickets, boarding passes or hotel reservation receipts. Thanks to e-tickets, online bookings, and mobile check-in, consumers benefit from the convenience factor of digitalisation and the mobile device, which often saves masses of time, if not money.

With technology advancing at a rapid pace, consumers have access to everything at their fingertips. Booking and comparison apps for travel gives the consumer increased choice, in terms of speed, price, comfort and safety. Alternative modes of transport are also growing, for example car-sharing to avoid extortionate taxi rates. Apps like Loco2 allow you to buy train tickets across multiple countries in a single transaction and currency.

The rise of electronic payments via Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Wallet makes travel safer and easier. And several start-up banks – most notably N26 – now offer credit or debit cards that offer the best possible foreign exchange rates without charging any fees.

Going cashless has many advantages, namely, convenience – no longer having to carry lots of cash or a couple of debit cards and avoiding long queues for the ATM. Safety is another huge advantage, as everyone has experienced incidents of losing cash. Once the electronic payment system is fully integrated, travellers needn’t worry about debit card or identity fraud or changing their card details. It’s a win:win situation that, in the end, just makes life better.

Travelling to Beijing in 2018 versus 1997

Dave Ashton

A few weeks ago, I returned to Beijing for the first time in 20 years, this time with my 15 year-old son. Not only is its infrastructure in many ways now more modern than London or New York (really), but travel booking, management and communication has moved almost entirely to the mobile device.

I booked trains and hotels via Ctrip, mapped out subway and walking routes and found a restaurant for eating donkey via Google Maps, booked a dozen car rides via Didi, paid for a bike and a bus ride via Alipay, and found and booked our guide in Guilin – who took us to a restaurant where my son and I ate rat – all via the mobile device. And I chatted with and video-called my wife as often as I wanted via WhatsApp. At the end, not only was the phone bill not $2800 (€2371.47), access to all those services combined cost about £20.

In other words, £20 to access the world. Donkey and rat excepted, of course. A lot has changed in 20 years.

The author of this blog is Dave Ashton, CEO of Loco2, a booking platform for train tickets in the UK and Europe.

About the author:

Dave joined Loco2 in July 2017, following a specific request from an executive recruiter looking for a company leader with a background in travel and technology, who was native English/Anglo but could also speak fluent French. Dave was the perfect match.

As Loco2 CEO, Dave spends a large amount of his time identifying and bringing together strengths and skills of the team to work together towards the mutual goal – to grow the business by making travel more accessible to everyone. By putting people first, quality systems built on passion are created, and what may once have been considered problems or barriers become opportunities. Dave’s focus is also on delivery, growth strategy, and investor relations.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Semtech enhances global connectivity with NTN support in HL78 modules

Posted on: March 29, 2024

Semtech Corporation has announced the integration of non-terrestrial network (NTN) support into its HL series LPWA modules, specifically the HL7810 and HL7812. This significant advancement showcases a leap forward in enabling uninterrupted global connectivity even amidst the most challenging conditions.

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more