London, 20th November 2008: SIMalliance, the global association made up of the world's leading SIM card manufacturers, today announces the creation of its Near Field Communications (NFC) Working Group.
With representation from all major SIM card manufacturers, the Group aims to be the catalyst to strengthen the central role of the SIM in the NFC ecosystem. Working with mobile operators, handset manufacturers and other value chain players such as banks, transport companies & retailers, the Working Group will highlight the value of the SIM. The Working Group will support the established NFC sectors such as transportation and payment as well as encourage the development of new and innovative NFC services.
The first deliverable of the NFC Working Group will be an in-depth whitepaper covering NFC architecture and technology road map, the ecosystem giving detailed information about SIM based NFC vs embedded solutions. The Group will also actively approach key partners from the mobile network operator world, including the GSMA, application and hardware developers as well as Trusted Service Managers (TSM) and Standardization Committees to create a dedicated community to support the creation and delivery of SIM based NFC applications.
Pawel Chrobok, Chairman of the SIMalliance NFC Working Group, said: “We must promote SIM based NFC and its ability to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for mobile operators. To do so, we must clarify the stakeholders, and the vital role of the mobile operator, within the NFC community. We must also play a key role in bringing the ecosystem together, to develop important commercial and technical agreements between service providers and this community.
The SIMalliance has a responsibility to take the lead on these issues and to advise new and established NFC players on the opportunities, and the commercial and technical realities of developing and deploying applications in this increasingly significant sector.”
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Note to editors:
About SIMalliance: Putting the SIM at the heart of the new mobile eco-system
Over the past five years SIMalliance has become one of the world’s foremost commentators in the mobile business. By operating outside the singular commercial interests of any individual SIM card player, the association has been able to pinpoint the mission critical services on the horizon and help steer their development to meet the practical needs of the mobile market.
With SIMalliance members* now responsible for nine in every ten SIM cards sold worldwide, the collective vision of the association is uniquely placed to shape SIM developments and the impact they will have on the new generation of mobile services. From their standpoint, the challenge couldn’t be clearer for the protagonists in the mobile eco-system.
* SIMalliance members are: Eastcompeace, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Incard, Oberthur Card Systems, Prism, Sagem Orga, SanDisk, Watchdata and Wuhan Tianyu
Contact Presse
Stéphanie de Labriolle
PR, Marketing & Web Consultant
+33 6 85 91 19 94
stephanie.delabriolle[at]simalliance.org