re: 3G SIM Cards
>> Applications: SIM companies seek 3G role : Working Out The Bugs Of Interoperability
John C. Tanner
February 15, 2001
America's Network
The future success of 3G is widely believed to depend on services that can generate revenue. SIM cards will play a part in that success, but interoperability across all platforms needs to be resolved.
Smartcard vendors are promoting the role of SIM cards in 3G mobile networks - a role that can help bridge the roaming issue between 3G and legacy 2G systems and, ideally, let operators focus on services rather than worry about technological compatibilities.
Gemplus, for example, recently announced the availability of its 3G product range at ITU Telecom Asia 2000 in Hong Kong, including a USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) card, a USIM Java card, and the software environment dedicated for testing, training, and applications development.
Gemplus’ USIM card promises, among other things, enhanced security and authentication features geared toward mobile commerce applications.
One advantage of the USIM, says Gemplus Executive Vice President Philippe Vallee, is that it lets operators update security information in a more transparent manner to end-users.
"Usually if an operator does this, he has to recall the SIM cards and issue out new ones, which is inconvenient to users," Vallee says. "With the USIM, they can do this over the air without having to do a recall."
Rival smartcard vendor Schlumberger also is working on a SIM card for 3G terminals based entirely on the JavaOS smartcard platform. According to Schlumberger Mobile Director Claus Hansen, the advantage of using the Java platform is that it lets mobile operators, whether 2G, 2.5G, or 3G, focus on delivering services rather than spending time creating them.
Everyone Must Roam
Interoperability also is a big issue when it comes to 3G roaming — not just between different markets or IMT-2000 technologies such as W-CDMA, cdma2000, TDMA-EDGE, or TD-SCDMA, Hansen says, but also between existing 2G and 2.5G systems and services.
"For a long time after the first 3G networks are rolled out, you’ll still have all these 2G and 2.5G networks around, and customers will be confused about where they can and can’t use their handsets unless all these roaming issues are solved," Hansen says.
Gemplus and Schlumberger, along with Giesecke & Devrient, Oberthur Card Systems, and ORGA Kartensysteme, have formed the SIM Alliance with the goal of developing a global standard that can work across generational platforms. However, Hansen says that 3GPP2 - the industry forum developing cdma2000 technology - is something of a wild card in that goal.
"For 3GPP2, there has been a hesitation to endorse a standardized SIM card technology," he says. Hansen adds that 3GPP2 is likely to do so in the near future, - but at this stage it is not a given. There are a lot of details to be worked out."
SIM cards have only just recently been introduced into CDMA handsets. The first-ever such SIM card - GemXplore, manufactured by Gemplus - was launched and demonstrated in China last October by ZTE.
According to Gemplus, the GemXplore is designed for use on CDMA and GSM networks, enabling a so-called “plastic roaming” capability that essentially lets CDMA users roam onto GSM and have access to their regular value-added services.
The catch, however, is that what actually roams is the SIM card, not the handset. Consequently, CDMA users would still need to leave their CDMA handset at home and rent a GSM handset in the market they are roaming to.
Services Required:
That said, the CDMA SIM card may well be a step in the right direction for CDMA, since up until now, CDMA operators have been developing services embedded directly in the handset. By being able to separate the service profile from the handset, CDMA operators gain the ability to offer tailored services.
And that ability is expected by many wireless players to be a necessary one when 3G networks start going live, because at the end of the day, it is all going to be about services, not technology.
That makes it all the more crucial for SIM cards to be standardized and interoperable across all platforms, Hansen says, who points to analyst projections which indicate that by 2003, only 50% of wireless users will be using handsets compatible with mobile Internet services of any generation.
"This is why it’s so important for operators to concentrate more on what services they should be offering than have to worry about incompatible technologies and backward compatibility," Hansen says. "Wireless content providers aren’t going to be impressed if only half your customers three years from now will be using wireless data."
John C. Tanner is the global technology editor for Advanstar’s Telecom Group. <<
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