SIMalliance supports bullish growth in the Asian market at CommunicAsia, with interoperable SIM-enabled solutions for wireless data services

SIMalliance @ CommunicAsia 2002 All the signs are pointing towards Asia as the most significant mobile market both now and for some years to come. While growth in Western Europe is stabilising, Asia is still on an upward curve. Of the 40 million new subscribers worldwide in 2001, 27 million were based in Asia Pacific (EMC database).

„X With Asia emerging as strong growth market with dominant SIM market share,
SIMalliance uses its presence at CommunicAsia to encourage operators to use full value of SIM (Java Card SIM, S@T SIM-browsing, SIM Toolkit)
„X SIMalliance helping to unlock the potential of Java Card and Java-based phones
„X SIMalliance welcomes Incard, its newest member

SIMalliance
Energise your mobile services

SIMalliance @ CommunicAsia 2002
All the signs are pointing towards Asia as the most significant mobile market both now and for some years to come. While growth in Western Europe is stabilising, Asia is still on an upward curve. Of the 40 million new subscribers worldwide in 2001, 27 million were based in Asia Pacific (EMC database).

Jean-Philippe Betoin, Chairman of the SIMalliance said, ¡§According to all major SIM industry analysts, Asia is emerging as the region with the most dominant SIM market growth. This trend is in-line with SIMalliance¡¦s expectations that Asia should be the biggest market for SIM unit shipments from 2002 onwards. This makes Asia the most strategic mobile market for SIM manufacturers. The objective of the SIMalliance is to boost the adoption of innovative, revenue generating, SIM-based mobile applications and help Asian operators realise the full potential of the latest SIM-based developments. SIMalliance, as an industry forum, has a strong role to play in the promotion and eventual uptake of these services.¡¨

SIM Cards are considered by most GSM operators as one of their main assets, allowing quick, efficient and cost effective, service access and deployments. In the past 3 years, SIMalliance has achieved significant milestones in new SIM-based services, delivery tools and systems, such as S@T, the SIMalliance Toolbox, and the first global SIM-browsing standard and true interoperability for the Java Card SIM.

SIMalliance achieves a major milestone by helping operators to benefit from a Java Phone SIM API
In the past 3 months, SIMalliance has actively contributed to preparatory work on a SIM API for Java mobile handset. This will benefit service development and deployments for mobile data services using the combined benefits of the card and phone.
SIMalliance worked hand in hand with major industry players in joint sessions to study the major combined SIM-Smart phone application user cases and then build the essential functional specifications.
This common work led to the acceptance of a dedicated workgroup under the Java Community Process (JCP), the entity in charge of creating new Java specifications.
The first results of this workgroup should be seen in the first half of 2003 with the publication of a standardised API.

SIMalliance extends its reach by welcoming a new member
SIMalliance has the pleasure to welcome Incard, a new member company.
"We believe in the positive role of SIMalliance in the Mobile Communications market" says Giancarlo Celentano, Incard's Head of Marketing of Mobile Communications. "As one of the major SIM card providers, we are glad to offer our contribution, in the definition of innovative SIM card solutions".
This new membership highlights the benefits of the work carried out within SIMalliance and then passed on to the SIM Card industry to the ultimate benefit of wireless subscribers. Incard will enrich the SIMalliance by bringing in new ideas and resources to the current projects in different fields of interoperability.

To get full details of SIMalliance and freely download its work or learn how to join, visit us at www.simalliance.org

About SIMalliance
SIMalliance is a collaboration of the world¡¦s leading SIM card manufacturers: Gemplus, Giesecke & Devrient, Incard, Oberthur Card Systems, Orga Kartensysteme, SchlumbergerSema and XPoncard. SIMalliance is a non-profit organisation created to promote the benefits of SIM cards and SIM-based services.
SIMalliance:
- Acts as an incubator for SIM card enhancements to be proposed to standardisation bodies and industry forums,
- Boosts adoption of innovative and interoperable SIM card solutions,
- Eases the integration of the SIM card in the new mobile data architecture and services landscape.
SIMalliance promotes key functionalities and usages of the SIM card that help energise the new generation of mobile services.

SIMalliance¡¦s main achievements for 2001:
- Java Card„· SIM (subscriber identity module) interoperability support tools, created to accelerate progress towards full seamless interoperability of GSM Java applets.
- The SIMalliance Toolbox latest release (S@T) and its interoperability guidelines.
All those specifications and tools are now freely available on-line at www.simalliance.org.
SIMalliance is an initiative open to key GSM players worldwide.

The SIM card today plays an essential role in mobile value-added services with more than 90% of GSM operators having launched SIMToolkit and SIM-based services.

Contact:
Jean-Philippe Betoin
Chairman SIMalliance
e-mail: info@simalliance.org