Card Technology articles from November 2003

Card Technology archives from November 2003

Better Times, Tougher World.(smart card industry)
November 1, 2003... After two difficult years, things are looking up in the smart card industry. Card vendor Oberthur Card Systems reported a profit in the first half of this year, its first in two years. Competitor Gemplus' stock price has quadrupled since...

A Budding Rift Over A Smaller SIM.
November 1, 2003... Some European mobile network operators have expressed opposition to a proposal to create an option for a miniature subscriber identity module card, less than half the physical size of SIM cards used by more than 900 million customers...

European Processors Unite To Defend Turf.
November 1, 2003... Three of Europe's major bank-owned national payment card processors last month formed a joint venture to process credit card transactions, in an effort to cut costs and ward off the threat from U.S-based competitors. SSB of Italy,...

Industry Briefs.(Industry Overview)
November 1, 2003... Alliances Gemplus International of France and Togewanet of Switzerland will offer a product allowing users of high-speed wireless local area networks to securely roam on different WLANs. Gemplus will provide SIM cards with WLAN...

Card Technology Calendar.(Calendar)
November 1, 2003... Nov. 25-27: Karta 2003-Warsaw, Poland Organized by the Warsaw Exhibition Board For more information, contact the organizers at: Telephone: +22 49 60 06 Fax: +22 49 35 84 E-mail: biuro_reklamybrsa.com.pl Web site:...

Regional News.
November 1, 2003... Europe Oberthur Reports First Profit Since 2001: France-based Oberthur Card Systems reported a net profit of 2.8 million euros (US$3.2 million) for the first half of 2003, its first half-year profit since early 2001. The company lost...

Memory Doubles, With More To Come.
November 1, 2003... Computer memory is always growing. So it may not seem like big news that the rewriteable memory on smart cards has doubled to 128 kilobytes. But it will be big news to some users of smart cards who need more memory. First on the list will...

What Major Chipmakers Have To Offer.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Atmel Has designed 256K chip but says it is waiting for market to require it. Meanwhile, it has a combined 128K flash/EEPROM chip. Infineon Plans to offer 32-bit flash chip with 400K of memory that users can configure to their...

On The Road to High-Tech Driver's Licenses: The threat of terrorism and growth in identity theft has accelerated efforts in many countries to make driver's licenses harder to copy. What happens next?
November 1, 2003... In late September, the Australian state of Queensland unveiled a plan to begin issuing smart card driver's licenses to its 2.5 million drivers in 2006. The card may be used for other purposes, such as carrying emergency contact information or...

Chips Are Standard Equipment On Some Registration Documents.
November 1, 2003... Smart cards are finding a home on vehicle registration cards as well as driver's licenses. The European Union is mulling the adoption of a plan to allow member states to introduce chip card-based vehicle registration cards that would replace...

China Weighs In: The world's largest smart card market is getting even bigger. And it will soon begin to make its substantial heft felt around the world.
November 1, 2003... This year, China will account for one quarter of the entire smart card industry. It's by far the largest market for subscriber identity module cards for mobile phones, swallowing up more than one-third of worldwide shipments. That...

Greencorp Ahead in Service.(Greencorp Magnetics Pty Ltd)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Greencorp Magnetics Pty Ltd is a leading manufacturer of Magnetic Stripe Foils and Tapes for financial and the rapidly expanding non financial PVC cards market and paper tickets. Greencorp produces the most extensive range of HiCo (2750 and...

Java Card Splits European And Chinese Vendors.
November 1, 2003... It was February 2002, and Chinese and European-based SIM card vendors were gathered around the table at China Mobile's research and development center in Beijing. Officials with the giant GSM operator asked about the Java Card software...

Flashing For Fare Payment in China: Major transit-ticketing projects using contactless chip cards.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
November 1, 2003... (part 1 of 2) City Launch Cards in circulation Beijing 2003 NA Dalian 2001 500,000 Guangzhou 2001 1 million Shanghai 2000...

Banking On The Future: Card payments are uncommon and chip cards scarce in China's banking market.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Number of magnetic-stripe cards 500 million, mainly debit (most little-used) Point-of-sale terminals 300,000 Cash machines 50,000 Chip cards 3 million (complying with domestic standard, PBOC) International EMV Networking...

High Hopes For Chip Cards In Brazil: In mobile phones, banking, transit and employee meal vouchers, pioneering Brazilian companies are using smart cards to stand out from the crowd.
November 1, 2003... In September, the up-and-coming Brazilian wireless operator Oi joined forces with Banco do Brasil, the nation's largest bank, to offer secure banking transactions using subscriber identity module (SIM) chip cards. Wireless is the hottest...

A Snapshot Of Smart Cards in Brazil.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Telecom Nine of 12 TDMA mobile phone operators are switching to GSM technology, which requires a smart card in each handset to store subscriber data. SIM card demand is estimated at 7 million units this year, 10 million in 2004. ...