Get your brit card

[hobnob]

affordable, maybe, although they change net specs often in order to render handsets obsolete, so they can flog new ones.
and will it work on a 2G phone?? i doubt it*

The phone that I mentioned before is 4G, and I think that would apply to any new phone that's been sold in the past few years. Bear in mind that 2G and 3G are being discontinued at network level:
3G and 2G switch-off - Ofcom

There's a wider question of how this hypothetical app will work, and the short answer is that we don't know yet. However, it's entirely possible that the phone won't need an active internet connection at all (when you're showing your ID). A couple of other options:
* It might use NFC (Near Field Communication), the same way that you can use a phone for contactless payment.
* When I use the FirstBus app, it displays an animated QR code, and the ticket machine on the bus scans that code.

I.e. the scanner will need internet access, and the phone will need internet access when you set up the app, but that could use a wireless network (at home) rather than a mobile data network.

[sadkingbilly]

The phone that I mentioned before is 4G, and I think that would apply to any new phone that's been sold in the past few years. Bear in mind that 2G and 3G are being discontinued at network level:
3G and 2G switch-off - Ofcom

There's a wider question of how this hypothetical app will work, and the short answer is that we don't know yet. However, it's entirely possible that the phone won't need an active internet connection at all (when you're showing your ID). A couple of other options:
* It might use NFC (Near Field Communication), the same way that you can use a phone for contactless payment.
* When I use the FirstBus app, it displays an animated QR code, and the ticket machine on the bus scans that code.

I.e. the scanner will need internet access, and the phone will need internet access when you set up the app, but that could use a wireless network (at home) rather than a mobile data network.

all that palaver, and the 'phone's effectively a passive lump displaying an ID card?
just have a smart card, ffs.