|
|
 |
| Smarticware Services/Offerings |
| Mobile phones for Identity, Signature, Payments and Ticketing |
Almost every body in the rich part of the world has a mobile phone. It is a personal device which you always carry with you. On top of that it can securely hold the same type of information you keep in a classical smart card. Further, the roll out of 2.5G (GPRS) and 3G makes mobile Internet a reality for the masses in the coming years. This open up an intresting opportunity for the mobile phone to be your personally trusted device besides your communication device.
The vision is that the mobile phone is used for eIdentities (mIDs), electronic signatures, eCash, credit and debit card payments, public transport tickets etc both in real world and in virtual world. In the virtual world the phone can be used as a) a trusted device to the PC, which is used for navigation and presentation, while the phone is used for the sensitive functions like signing, paying etc, and b) the phone is used as an independent device, i.e both for navigation, presentation and all sensitive functions.
A lot of pilots have already been made and many new ones are now going on in different parts of the world. However, there are difficulties and the outcome so far of these trials has not met the expectations mainly due to interoperability problems, limitations in technology, lack of good business models and that many actors need to be involved.
The simplest way to create a mobile phone with the necessary capabilities for these type of trials is to replace the traditional SIM with a PKI SIM. That chip holds a traditional SIM part and then a PKI part for storing the sensitive functions. The mobile operator owns the SIM card which means that all actors using functions in a PKI SIM card must have agreements with operators.
Another way is to introduce a separate chip for storing the mIDs, signatures etc in the mobile and by that these functions can be separated from the network operator completely. There are different techniques for introducing the separate chip and if the chip is a contact less one very interesting new applications are possible. For example, you can buy your monthly public transport ticket over the network, get it distributed to the phone and then later use it just by waving the phone at the gate to the bus, train or underground. You can do the same when paying with eCash which you have loaded to the phone via the network etc.
The mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo in Japan, is now piloting exactly the applications described above. The 3G i-mode Felica handsets used in the trials are managed by two separate organizations. The contact less chip is managed by the Felica networks organization while NTT DoCoMO handles the SIM card. NTT DoCoMo's goal is to get people to leave their leather wallets at home and instead use their imode Felica handsets!
In summary, the mobile phone has the potential to be the tool which integrates the physical and virtual worlds providing new and very exciting services to the users. The technology evolves rapidly and now it looks very promising that this really will happen.
|
|
