Sophia-Antipolis, June 10, 2008–ASK a pioneer of contactless cards for the mass transit market since 1997, today announced that the company joined the UK-based Integrated Transport Smartcard Organization (ITSO) and successfully passed the ITSO certification. This certificate strengthens ASK market presence in the United Kingdom and confirms the company’s strategy to offer clients and partners a large portfolio of products compliant with international and regional standards.

“ASK has been closely involved in standard specification for contactless cards since the company’s creation,” declares Bruno Moreau, ASK’s CEO. “We were one of the founding members of the Calypso group when it was first developed by European partners from the cities of Brussels, Lisbon, Konstanz, Paris and Venice. And currently ITSO collaborates with Calypso Network Association and VDV, the German transport standard, to enable their schemes to interoperate” he adds.

ITSO contactless smart cards are already implemented in more than nine areas in the United Kingdom including the Greater Manchester and Merseyside regions. ITSO is a non-profit sharing organization owned by its members and supported by the UK department for transport. The system covers all components: cards, points of service and back office systems.

“ASK already contributes to the greater part of the Calypso implementations and to attract UK customers and become a major actor of ITSO implementations, we rely on three main assets: the largest experience in mass transit teleticketing, a unique portfolio that comprises long-term or short-term duration media and competitive prices,” said Amand Cochet, VP Sales & Marketing.

ASK invented and developed the first contactless paper ticket in the world, C.ticket®, a product already used by more than 85 million passengers inlcuding the 14 million Beijing Olympic Games visitors. Large cities and/or capital cities around the world benefit from ASK contactless technology for mass transit, payment or multiaplication including Paris, Lisbon, Roma, Brussels, Toronto, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tel-Aviv, Singapore or Beijing.

About ASK

ASK, with over 120 million contactless products in circulation in more than 50 countries, is a worldwide leading provider of a full range of contactless products including smart cards, smart tickets, smart adhesive labels, readers, inlays for electronic passports or contactless smart cards and eDocuments .

ASK is ISO9001 certified and holds a portfolio of 53 patents to date. ASK is a France-headquartered company with worldwide customers and wholly-owned subsidiaries in the US, Singapore and China.

For more information: http://www.ask-rfid.com

Media contact

Claire Boyer
Tel: +33 (0)4.97.21.48.56
Cell: +33 (0)6.72.14.01.46
claire.boyer@ask.fr