Contactless payment tech in all phones next year, says Ericsson boss
Killer phone feature for 2010?
All mobile phones will feature Near Field Communications (NFC) technology within 12 months, a mobile industry executive has claimed.
While speaking at a recent company event in Stockholm, Håkan Djuphammar, Ericsson's VP of systems architecture, said: “A year from now, basically every new phone that's sold will have [Near Field Communication]”.
Djuphammar also hinted that NFC technology will be built directly onto the Sim card – a method that some phone firms, including Nokia, and network operators have already begun exploring.
Building a “secure environment” onto the Sim card where “trusted identities” or “secure elements” can be created will also enable phones to be used like car keys or a credit card, Djuphammar said, according to numerous online reports.
Nokia, for example, back in April rolled out what it claimed was the world’s first SIM-enabled NFC phone - the 6212 Classic.
By linking NFC to the SIM, rather than just adding an NFC chip into the phone, Nokia stressed that network operators will be able to develop their own NFC payments services. ®
COMMENTS
What about radio skimming?
Won't these new SIMs run afoul of the same radio-skimming technique that caused passport makers to add Faraday cages to the covers? Doubt you can do that for a cell phone since that would kill the phone's primary function--wireless phone calls, which ALSO happen to be dependent on radio frequencies.
Unclear
Sure, the SIM card will need to be updated. However, the way the article was written implied that by replacing a SIM one could have NFC in the phone - in which case, all phones would be upgradeable if given a new SIM. Surely this cannot be the case, the SIM is too small a device to have a transmitter with sufficient power ?
Finally . . .
Since USIM implementation in the UK using a SIM to authenticate off network (ie. to an external partner such as a bank etc.) has been possible.
As is often Wikipedia's info is incorrect as USIM has nothing to do with UMTS. However if you do some digging on Google you'll find out more about the current (ETSI, GSM, 3GPP & ITU-T) SIM specifications whereby a card can be used for multiple authentication purposes.
This just shows the length of time it takes manufactures and providers to slog it out and forgo bitching to reach some kind of useful partnership/product.
Security?
Is there any personal security, like a PIN? It seems to me that it's one more reason to mug someone
