Call for new members to join industry working groups to speed the development of pioneering value added services

London, 21st April 2009: SIMalliance, the global association of SIM card manufacturers, invites additional mobile industry players to join its Strategic Partner Programme. The objective of the programme is to facilitate a unified approach to help speed the development and adoption of advanced SIM technology for next generation, end-to-end mobile environments, architectures and services. Through its eight working groups, the SIMallliance is collaborating across the industry to advance interoperability between SIM, handset and wireless platforms to enable the simple delivery of new value added services and reduce development costs. 

With 90 percent of the SIM market already represented in its working groups, the SIMalliance encourages additional mobile ecosystem players, including handset manufacturers, mobile operators, content and service providers, and application developers, to participate in relevant groups. The first strategic partner, FCI, a leading developer and manufacturer of high speed Backpanel connectors, has joined with more expected to follow.

“Advanced SIM technology is set to become a significant new revenue generator for operators, handset and services and content providers,” said Michel Canitrot, Chairman of the Board, SIMalliance. “By employing a cross industry approach focussed on interoperability, we can limit market fragmentation and ease integration in new telecom environments, resulting in a faster time to market for these new business models. We have also extended our global footprint with four Asia Pacific members joining in the last two years alone, and are very pleased to welcome our first strategic partner – FCI. By working together, our members and strategic partners can enable a multitude of new applications for cellular users.”

Current SIMalliance working groups include S@T, MarkUp Language, Interoperability, Mobile TV (on hold), Mobile NFC, Smart Card Web Server, OTA Asia and Handset Asia. Working group programme activities include:
•   Concept workshops
•   Recommendations on target architecture
•   Reference implementations and open source guidance
•   Initial interoperability coordination amongst early implementers
•   Real-world demonstrations and pilots
•   Liaison with relevant standards bodies and forums

Benefits of joining working groups include gaining a better understanding of advanced SIM applications and technology roadmaps, creating a vision for how these solutions can be integrated into new telecom environments, simplifying technical choices, facilitating market consistency and interoperability.

Organisations interested in participating in joining the SIMalliance Strategic Partner Programme should submit a written application to the Chairman of the applicable working group.

For more information on the SIMalliance Strategic Partner Programme, go to www.simalliance.org