I wish I had access to Mayor Bloomberg on this one. This entire pilot has been surrounded by mysticism. How many companies were allowed to bid for this "pilot"

I wish I had access to Mayor Bloomberg on this one. This entire pilot has been surrounded by mysticism. How many companies were allowed to bid for this "pilot"? Why will it take 5 years to mimic what other countries have done already? Why is a credit card company and not pure contactless OEMs or service providers not the ones doing the pilot? Why 5 years to do the implementation? I bet you that my company (or any other NFC startup, for that matter) would've done the entire implementation in less than 1 year and at 1/10th the cost. Shady MTA, shady!