GlobalPlatform Signs Telefónica O2 Europe, Bringing Total Membership to 60

14 October 2009 – GlobalPlatform membership has reached its highest level in the organization's ten year history following the addition of Telefónica O2 Europe (O2), a leading provider of mobile and home broadband services to consumers and businesses, as an Observer Member.

O2 joins the international specification body for smart card infrastructure to contribute to GlobalPlatform's Mobile Task Force, an initiative which aims to mitigate standards fracturing as the mobile market converges with other sectors such as payment and ticketing.  As an Observer Member, representatives from the company will also have the opportunity to participate in GlobalPlatform's Advisory Council, track the work of its technical committees and influence the direction of other task force activities.

Neill Whitworth, Head of SIM and OTA at Telefónica O2 Europe, comments: "On the back of our successful Near Field Communications (NFC) trial 'O2 Wallet' in 2008 and recent 'O2 Money' initiative which enables users to manage their money and receive real-time balance updates via their mobile phone, we recognize the value in knowledge sharing to benefit the mobile services industry as a whole.  We support the work of GlobalPlatform and firmly believe that the presence of a secure and interoperable smart card infrastructure will drive the wider adoption of innovative mobile solutions globally."

Kevin Gillick, Executive Director of GlobalPlatform, adds: "We are delighted to welcome O2 to our expanding membership and to achieve this significant milestone in the organization's history.  O2's involvement in GlobalPlatform's Mobile Task Force will add significant value to the output of this group and we look forward to leveraging O2's wealth of mobile expertise."

For further details on different membership opportunities at GlobalPlatform visit https://globalplatform.wpengine.com/membershiplevels.asp.

Notes to editors:

Telefónica O2 UK
O2 is a leading provider of mobile and home broadband services to consumers and businesses in the UK.  These services include voice, text, media messaging, games, music and video, as well as always on data connections via GPRS, 3G, ADSL2+ and WLAN. Every month, O2's 17.9 million customers send well over a billion text messages.  O2 UK is part of Telefónica O2 Europe which comprises mobile network operators in the UK, Ireland and Slovakia along with integrated fixed / mobile businesses in Germany and the Czech Republic.  Telefónica O2 Europe also owns 50% of the Tesco Mobile and Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses in the UK and Germany respectively as well as having 100% ownership of Be, a leading UK fixed broadband provider.

About GlobalPlatform
*2009 is the 10th anniversary of GlobalPlatform - to learn more about its achievements click here*

GlobalPlatform is the world leader in smart card infrastructure development. Its proven technical specifications for cards, devices and systems are regarded as the industry standard for achieving interoperable, sustainable and flexible smart card deployments that support multi-application, multi-actor and multi-business model implementations.

GlobalPlatform is a member driven association with cross-industry representation from all world continents. As of October 2009, an estimated 449 million GlobalPlatform-based smart cards had been deployed.  Additionally, 2.2 billion mid range USIM/SIM cards worldwide are estimated to use GlobalPlatform card technology to enable over-the-air (OTA) application downloads for 3G and GSM mobile networks.  www.globalplatform.org