The Bidasoa Institute in Irun, one of the most innovative training centers in Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country, has been selected to conduct the first pilot test of the new Mugi virtual ecosystem. Until now, the application and web had only been tested on validators, but this week marked the first occasion that individuals outside the project, specifically students from the institute, were able to use it.

Azahara Domínguez, the provincial deputy for Sustainable Mobility and president of the Transport Authority, highlighted that the young people were able to experiment with the functioning of this new digital payment system from their own mobile phones. "The initiative has allowed us to recreate the process of migrating the physical Mugi card to the virtual version and its subsequent use as realistically as possible," she stated. Domínguez expressed a very positive assessment, as the students "shared their feelings, evaluations, and improvement proposals, providing valuable feedback to continue refining the service before its final implementation".

For this pilot proposal, students from the Higher Degree in Telecommunications and Computer Systems and the Intermediate Degree in Telecommunications Installations were selected. Domínguez emphasized that young people "are more familiar with new technologies and virtual payments," making their opinion "very important" for improving the service.

Mugi virtual is scheduled to launch "next winter," for which all system operators will need to have renewed their validators. Throughout the day, a Mugi stand provided information at the educational center, where it was also possible to request cards and make top-ups. Azahara Domínguez thanked the center and the students for their collaboration, and announced that "this test will be conducted with other groups as well".

Juncal Amunarriz, the center's director, considered the event "very interesting," as "our students have experienced a practical application of what they work on daily at the center. It also allows them to see the future of the courses they are studying," she added, recalling that the center is currently in the pre-enrollment process.