Melbourne commuters able to use myki on their mobile phones from Thursday

Melbourne commuters will be able to use their Android smartphones to pay their public transport fares from Thursday.

But iPhone users will have to wait to join the digital transport revolution with the State Government unable, so far, to strike a deal with Apple.

Users of Google-powered Android phones will be able to buy tickets with their device from Thursday after paying with Google Pay with a minimum top-up of $10.

This will remove the need for carrying a physical myki card when catching a bus, tram or train in Melbourne or regional Victoria.

The move comes after a trial of 4000 users delivered an 80 per cent satisfaction rating on the system.

The new ticket option is available to most Android users, as long as their phone runs Android 5.0 or higher and has a built-in NFC wireless chip for contactless transactions.

This might seem like old news to Sydneysiders, who have had alternatives to using an Opal card since last year, but in some ways Melburnians are better off.

Sydney uses an “open loop” ticketing system, which means you can tap on with your contactless credit or debit card instead of an Opal card. This trick works not just with physical bank cards but also with any gadget which can mimic a contactless credit card, like a smartphone, watch or wristband.

Meanwhile, Melbourne uses a “closed loop” ticketing system which, until now, has limited public transport users to tapping on with a physical myki card.

As of Thursday, they’ll also be able to tap on with a smartphone, but only if their phone can mimic a myki card. The ability to mimic a credit card isn’t enough.

This might seem like splitting hairs, but it actually makes a big difference to how the two cities’ ticketing systems work.

The biggest practical difference is that, at least for now, iPhone owners can swipe their phone to board a train in Sydney but not Melbourne.

This is due to the difficulties in striking a deal with Apple to use the iPhone’s NFC wireless chip, something which Australia’s major banks can attest to.

Apple locks down the iPhone’s NFC chip so it can only be accessed by Apple’s own apps like Apple Pay.

This means any business which wants to offer contactless transactions on the iPhone needs to go through Apple, with the tech giant typically demanding a slice of the action.

If your bank supports Apple Pay, then you can use your iPhone as a credit card to get on a Sydney train today.

But to get on a Melbourne train your iPhone would need to mimic a myki card, which means Public Transport Victoria needs to strike a deal with Apple.

Almost half the Victorian population (45 per cent) uses iPhones, according to data from the International Data Corporation.

The Victorian Government has been in discussions with Apple since at least May last year but has so far apparently unable to strike a deal to bring the tech giant on board the new initiative.

In PTV’s defence, only a handful of public transport systems around the world are onboard with Apple so far. Only a few of these actually let you create the local equivalent of a closed loop myki card, while the others simply treat the iPhone as a credit card.

The government says it discussions with Apple are ongoing.

With Paul Sakkal