New White Paper Outlines GlobalPlatform’s Commitment to the NFC Mobile Sector

21 April 2009 – GlobalPlatform has released a white paper to outline its technical contribution and commitment to the near field communication (NFC) mobile market. The document, which is free to download at www.globalplatform.org, outlines the technical foundation created by the international smart card specifications body for the management of multi-application, multi-actor and multi-business model NFC implementations. It also presents GlobalPlatform’s plans to develop future specifications for this market.

The white paper, entitled ‘The GlobalPlatform Proposition for NFC Mobile: Secure Element Management & Messaging’, details how GlobalPlatform Specifications are able to support all roles in the NFC ecosystem. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of each player in the maintenance of an end-to-end security chain, which is required for the secure management of over-the air applications between a service provider’s back office and the secure element on a chip.

To put the technology in context, the document additionally presents an overview of how GlobalPlatform technology can add value to different NFC business relationship models, referencing models which can be found – either in pilot or roll out stage – in the global marketplace. It ultimately aims to educate readers that a scalable and sustainable NFC ecosystem can only be realized through the promotion of standard communication, facilitation of interaction between new entities and the avoidance of proprietary solutions.

The white paper is of interest to parties involved in advancing the NFC ecosystem and participating in GlobalPlatform smart card NFC deployments.

Gil Bernabeu, Technical Director at GlobalPlatform and Technical Advisor for the Standardization and Technology Department at Gemalto , comments: “To support this fast evolving business landscape it is vital for the appropriate standards to be established that will allow the market to achieve a level of consistency, reliability and interoperability. This white paper clarifies the roles of the trusted service manager and trusted third party and this will facilitate the structuring of ecosystems between business partners and suppliers around the world.

“GlobalPlatform is well positioned to facilitate the creation of a neutral infrastructure that will allow service providers, trusted service managers and mobile network operators to manage back-end systems, accommodate communication exchanges, and enable application download and personalization, while successfully supporting the secure element, regardless of the business model used.”

The white paper covers three key topics:

• The new functional features that will be required in the back-office management systems to optimally manage a GlobalPlatform Secure Element, with specific focus on products compliant with the GlobalPlatform UICC Configuration;
• The role and contribution that trusted service managers can make to transport, command and/or manage keys and certificates;
• The capabilities of the GlobalPlatform Messaging Specification to define standardized messages that can be exchanged between disparate systems in a GlobalPlatform compliant environment.

Gil concludes: “The GlobalPlatform Messaging Specification is currently being updated to provide the necessary interoperability for the advancing NFC ecosystem, alongside a GlobalPlatform Embedded Secure Element Configuration. The white paper will eventually be updated to address this embedded secure element, in addition to the GlobalPlatform UICC Configuration.

“Since achieving scalability is key to the success of NFC technology, further amendments to existing GlobalPlatform Specifications will be made based on feedback from the industry and our members. This will ensure that NFC enabled phones used for payment, transport ticketing, loyalty, access and other contactless services become a mass market reality.”

The white paper was developed jointly by the following GlobalPlatform members: Datacard Group, Ericsson, Gemalto, Inside Contactless, Nextendis, Oberthur, Orange FT Group, RATP, SmartTrust and Visa Inc.

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For further media information, please contact Sarah Jones or Georgina D’Arcy at iseepr: globalplatform@iseepr.co.uk or telephone + (0) 1943 468007

About GlobalPlatform

*2009 is the 10 th 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 2008, an estimated 305.7 million GlobalPlatform-based smart cards had been deployed globally and an additional two 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