RIM targets “secure element manager” service at mobile operators
RIM is targeting its “secure element manager” service at mobile operators, offering to manage their NFC SIM cards.
The service is separate from RIM’s NFC-enabled BlackBerry phones and would be a separate revenue source. RIM says it could manage NFC SIMs and even embedded secure elements on Android and Windows Phone devices, though it would be unlikely to get contracts to manage the embedded chips owned by other device makers.
RIM confirmed that it is working with Netherlands-based smart card management system vendor Bell ID to provide its TSM service. Bell ID has a TSM platform to manage keys and applications.
But Geoffrey MacGillivray, RIM’s senior product manager for NFC services and TSM Product management, contends the handset maker has the security expertise in its own right to compete for TSM business against the top four smart card suppliers worldwide, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, Giesecke & Devrient and Morpho, which offer TSM services, along with NFC SIMs and other security products and services.
“RIM has a long history of security; and we are very adept at securely managing devices over the air,” MacGillivray told NFC Times. “If you look at these other service providers, they certainly have experience with SIMs and UICCs and relationships with carriers, but RIM also has relationships with carriers.”
In October, RIM announced that it is serving as TSM for the EnStream joint venture in Canada, made up of Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus Communications. But EnStream has not said when its partners would launch NFC services. Rogers along with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce have announced the launch of commercial service–initially on two BlackBerry models–but they probably do not use RIM as a TSM.
RIM noted in its announcement Wednesday that its TSM has met Visa’s “stringent technology and usability guidelines.” It’s unclear how often payment networks certify TSMs on the secure element side—which calls for TSMs to securely manage keys and carve out secure domains on the secure element.
The payment schemes more often appear to certify TSMs that serve banks, on the service provider side, including approving the security of the TSM’s data centers that handle card personalization data. The schemes also certify secure element providers.
All four of the major SIM vendors have certified TSMs.
MacGillivray said RIM’s TSM could also manage embedded secure elements, in addition to NFC SIMs, and that presumably includes RIM’s own embedded chips, which it has put into every one of its NFC-enabled BlackBerry phones. It does not talk much about its plans for these embedded chips, except to say that it intends to enable enterprise applications with them, including contactless employee ID badges.
Each NFC-enabled BlackBerry also supports a single-wire protocol connection to the SIM slot, and RIM–which needs telcos to buy its phones–has assured operators it would not promote NFC applications on its embedded chips in competition with the telco’s own SIM-based NFC services.
“We are balancing the needs of our carrier partners as well as our own in launching these services,” said MacGillivray.
