Re: SIM Card, WIM, & Smart Card stuff related to M-Commerce. Good explanation of the variables of Mobile Smart Card implementations:
totaltele.com
>> BANKS LAUNCH MOBILE COMMERCE POWER PLAY
By Joanne Taaffe
22 May 2000
Leading international banks have formed a mobile commerce association in an effort to stave off the threat from mobile network operators with proprietary transaction systems.
The Mobey Forum represents a significant departure in approach from recently formed m-commerce organizations initiated by telecoms players, such as the Global Mobile Commerce Forum (GMCF) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's Mobile Commerce standardization initiative.
The forum includes leaders in the development of mobile banking services, such as Merita Nordbanken of Finland and SE Banken of Sweden, as well as Deutsche Bank and HSBC and Visa. Equipment vendors such as L.M. Ericsson AB, Motorola Inc. and Nokia Oyj will also be involved, but network operators are being locked out.
"It's very important that all kinds of customers with a mobile phone can use all of our services," said Antti Tainio, vice president at MeritaNordbanken, Helsinki. "We will promote non-proprietary standards such as WAP, WIM [wireless identification module] and Bluetooth, as well as a public-key infrastructure."
The group will tackle the business as well as the security and handset user interface issues banks face with mobile commerce.
"The reason we're particularly attracted to Mobey is because it is financial, not cross industry," said Michael Artley, manager responsible for new technology, global e-business at HSBC, London.
The banks hope that a vertical-industry forum will enable them to move quickly on defining security needs and hammering out ideas on how the handset can be used for payment, because "we have a common understanding and needs," said Anders Bons, head of strategy and competitive intelligence, e-banking, at SE Banken, Stockholm.
The banks want to promote non-proprietary systems and ensure that banking and payment applications will run in a similar fashion regardless of the handset or operating network used. Currently, they claim, that is not the case.
"Key for us is the interoperability between different designs and the way it'll be implemented," said HSBC's Artley. "We need the same experience on different phones. It's going to be no good if on one operator's phone it works and then on another's it doesn't."
The banks also wished to pick through the implications of mobile commerce, without being side-tracked by complex standardizations and technology questions.
Some operators, however, emphasis the need for cross-industry efforts.
"There is a gulf of understanding between the respective telecoms and banking communities," said Mike Short, chairman of the Mobile Data Association, London, adding that "I see it as almost necessary that the telecoms community works with the banking community. I suspect it won't succeed very well without operators."
Some banks admit they feel they have got behind in the program to develop a business model for mobile commerce. "The banks were asleep when the SIM card got to market," said SE Banken's Bons. "All of a sudden the customer relationship was with the operator."
But the GMCF believes that the Mobey Forum is an important step for banks.
"It's a good idea," said Andy Westbrook, executive board member at the GMCF in London. "They will get a bigger voice than with another forum."
The MDA's Short said banks cannot go it alone in the development of services such as personalization by location and time-of-day. But he admits that banks beat operators hands-down when it comes to cash-flow management.
By striking out alone, banks may also be responding to a potential threat from mobile operators in the provision of mobile commerce transactions.
"It's a sensitive question; what their role will be in the future," said Pertti Lounamaa, vice president of Nokia Wireless Software Solutions.
"They have to collectively understand it. It's a natural reaction to get together and [understand] what they are facing."
"It's difficult to discuss openly if they feel there are participants who may challenge them," he added.
Mobile data services represent a new channel for financial services and a new way to access bank account information. They also pave the way for the mobile operator to deploy billing systems and multi-application SIM cards to provide micro-payments and control the customer relationship.
Apart from enabling discussion on business issues the forum also hopes to influence standard bodies and manufacturers on their approaches to security and payment via the handset. Mobey, however, will not develop standards.
"There are several things that could end up in a mess," said SE Banken's Bons, citing the potential problems attached to such as integrating different approaches to security, and different payment methods with different terminals.
The formation of the Mobey Forum comes just weeks after executives at the European Telecoms Standards Institute, based in Sophia Antipolis, France, said they would lead a cross-industry initiative to develop standards for mobile commerce (CWI, 6 March 2000, p.1).
Bridget Cosgrave, deputy director general of ETSI, said banks, smartcard manufacturers and operators held their first meeting earlier this month, and had agreed they would continue to meet under the arrangement.
Spoilt by choice
Banks, operators and handset manufacturers face a choice of least five potential handset designs that will be able to accommodate bank debit schemes, micro-payments and credit card applications, from companies such as Visa International and Mastercard.
* All functions, including the credit-card application, lodge on a single, multi-application SIM (subscriber identity module) card. The disadvantage for banks and credit-card companies is that not only are their brands subsumed into the larger SIM-card, but there is the question of who issues the SIM and thereby controls the customer relationship. Currently SIMs are issued and controlled by the operator. Understandably, banks are not keen. "One SIM card [incorporating] payment and authentication. That will give quite a [few] problems," said Anders Bons, head of strategy and competitive intelligence within SE Banken's e-banking unit.
* Dual-slot phone. Here the hand-set comes with a built-in smart-card reader. Consumers slot their existing bank-card or credit card into the smart-card reader-slot and type in a four-digit PIN, issued by their bank, in order to authenticate purchases. The dual-slot phone makes sense in countries such as France, where credit cards already incorporate a smart microprocessor to authenticate payment, rather than using a customer's signature to authenticate a payment. One advantage of the dual-slot phone is that the consumer is using a proven and trusted payment method. France Telecom is currently trialing dual-slot phones with a number of banks and major credit-card companies. However, Nokia's Lounamaa said "for the phone vendor the dual-slot is the least attractive as it restricts the design criteria of the phone."
* A second banking-chip that slots into the back of the phone near the SIM card. (This is also called a two-SIM card approach.) Merita Bank, which is trialing a dual-chip system, is strongly in favor of this handset design, which both keeps the handset simple and enables the bank to retain control over the credit and payment applications. A second chip also enables banks to introduce new applications that may otherwise fall into the hands of the operator. Merita Bank, for example, foresees the banking-chip holding loyalty-card applications from car-rental and airline companies.
* A separate card reader that would also incorporate Bluetooth. This design is appealing to hand-set manufacturers, as it simplifies hand-set design. Nokia's Lounamaa agrees that consumers may find an additional device cumbersome.
* Payment software built into the phone. This, claims Nokia's Lounamaa, would be the simplest solution for hand-set manufacturers. However, it raises serious security questions - a software-only solution would be the most open to attack by hackers.
Manufacturing members of the Mobey Forum want a unified approach to security and payments in order to simplify handset development. "The horror scenario is that we will have to support all five simultaneously," said Pertti Lounamaa, vice president of Nokia Wireless Software Solutions. "It would be a terrible matrix from product management point of view." <<
- Eric - |
