GSM Association development of embedded SIM card can be activated remotely

The GSM Association (GSMA) announced today that it has set up a working group of many telecom operators around the world to develop embedded SIM cards that can be activated remotely. The GSM Association says this is mainly to promote the development of new forms of mobile communications equipment, but also to the camera, MP3 player, navigator, E-book Reader, intelligent instruments and other non-traditional devices to more easily access to mobile broadband networks, thereby speeding up the development of machine-to-machine (machine-machine) services.

"Traditional SIM cards are an important innovation in the history of mobile phones, providing consumers with many benefits such as security, portability of contacts, and portability of devices," said Rob Conway, CEO and board member of the GSM Association. Our industry is moving from a telephony connection to a variety of device connections, and embedded SIM cards clearly offer greater flexibility. Embedded SIM cards will not only provide consumers with the same reliable security and portability, but will also support the electronic wallet (E-wallet) and NFC (short-range wireless communication) and many other new service functions. ”

This embedded SIM card development team is led directly by the GSM Association and cooperates with the major SIM card manufacturers, members of the United States At&t, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom Orange, Korea KT, Japan NTT DOCOMO, South Korea SK EADS, Italy Telecom, Spain Telefonica, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, such as the world's top operators.

The team will study the technical solutions for improving the existing SIM card configuration mechanism based on market requirements and will include a variety of programmable SIM functions to enable remote activation. Market demand is expected to be completed by January 2011, and devices with a SIM card remote activation feature are scheduled to be available in 2012.

Interestingly, there have been rumours that Apple is working with SIM card manufacturer Gemalto to produce special new SIM cards, and can also be activated remotely.

Remote activation, it should be very convenient, but certainly there will be a lot of danger.