West Coast fast food franchise Jack in the Box is experimenting with Near Field Communication-enabled phones.

It teamed with Bay Area Rapid Transit and Sprint to launch a technological trial that allowed participants to pay their BART fare and Jack in the Box tab using their mobile phones. Trial participants also downloaded content from Sprint just by waving their phones in front of smart advertisements.

"The strategy for Jack in the Box was to drive sales in-store and at the same time track those sales," said Mohammed Khan president and founder of VivoTech, Santa Clara, CA.

BART, Sprint and Jack in the Box tapped VivoTech, which developed the NFC software for the mobile phones and the over-the-air card provisioning servers that Sprint used for the trial.

Participants were able to remotely download their BART fare and Jack Ca$h gift cards onto their mobile phones, check their card balances, review previous transactions, automatically top up their cards and use their phones to pay for BART fares and Jack in the Box food.

VivoTech also provides the contactless payment devices that read the NFC-enabled chips at Jack in the Box restaurants

How does it work? It's simple.

Walk up to any BART fare gate with a specially-equipped Sprint wireless phone and pay for their ride by tagging the phone on a reader located on top of the gate.

Once through the gate, the 230 trial participants held their specifically-equipped Sprint mobile phone up to certain Jack in the Box and Sprint smart advertisements on BART station walls and download either directions to the nearest Jack in the Box restaurant or content from Sprint.

Then, after taking the train to their favorite Jack in the Box location, participants used their phone to pay for their meal.

This trial gave participants the benefit of receiving discounts and offers which companies usually only provide to customers participating in their loyalty programs," Mr. Khan said.

In the past, other pay-by-mobile-phone trials have just allowed customers to pay for goods and services using a credit card tied to their phone, which often prevented them from automatically receiving the discounts merchants provide.

However, in this trial participants automatically got those special discounts.

For example, participants automatically got a 6.25 percent discount BART provides those who purchase high-value tickets.

The technology lets riders avoid spending time buying a paper ticket and makes BART greener.

Sprint is currently evaluating the results from the preliminary trial of this new technology.

This technology can make life easier since users can manage their daily commute and make payments using the one device they carry with them throughout the day," Mr. Khan said.