Card Technology articles from October 2006

Card Technology archives from October 2006

Opportunity Knocks. Who Will Answer?: Making smart cards work with existing systems represents the biggest challenge today.
October 1, 2006... Funny how you don't hear people saying anymore that smart cards are a solution looking for a problem. That may have something to do with the major nations of the world adding smart cards chips to their passports, the U.S. government mandating...

Price War Batters Vendor Profits: 'We are only at the beginning of a new story; 2006 is the first year for Gemalto.'.
October 1, 2006... Smart card vendors saw their profits slide during the first half, which they largely blamed on plunging prices for their main product line, subscriber identity module cards for mobile phones. France-based Gemalto, by far the largest...

Newswatch: Europe.(DaimlerChrysler AG)(Telenor A/S)(Aspects Software )(Athena Smartcard Solutions )
October 1, 2006... NORDIC TELCO SUPPLIERS SIMS FOR EUROPEAN TRUCKS With a recent agreement with automaker DaimlerChrysler, Norway-based mobile network operator Telenor says it expects to supply subscriber identity module cards for up to 90% of new trucks...

Profitability Plunges-Along With SIM Prices.
October 1, 2006... The two major publicly traded smart card vendors reported lower profits during the first half of 2006, which both blamed largely on a fall of at least 35% in average prices for subscriber identity module cards compared with the same period in...

Calendar.(Calendar)
October 1, 2006... November 7-9: Cartes 2006 - Paris, France Organized by Exposium For more information, contact Cartes 2006 at: Telephone: +33 (0)1 49 68 52 23 E-mail: cartesexposium.fr Web site: http://www.cartes.com November...

People on the Move.(Lars Nyberg appointed at Datacard Group)(Inside Contactless appointed Eric Alzai and Patrick Jones)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Hatim A. Tyabji, chairman of the board for U.S.-based Datacard Group, a developer of card-personalization systems, will retire at the end of the year. He will be replaced by board member Lars Nyberg. Also, John Lam has returned to the company...

Chinese Railway To Roll Out Disposable Contactless Tickets.
October 1, 2006... China's Guangshen Railway will buy 125 million disposable contactless tickets over the next five years, believed to be the largest combined order of its kind, Finland-based vendor Confidex announced in late August. The vendor and some...

Newswatch: Americas.
October 1, 2006... GOVERNMENT RECONSIDERS FEE FOR REGISTERED TRAVELER PROGRAM The U.S. government last month proposed a surprisingly high $100 fee for each individual signing up for a program that would speed them through airport security checkpoints, but...

Newswatch: Asia-Pacific.(Australian motorists to make use of smart cards for their license)(China Mobile Ltd. grows with the demand for its sim cards)
October 1, 2006... AUSTRALIAN STATE PLANS A SMART CARD DRIVER'S LICENSE After five years of study, the Australian state of Queensland has decided to replace its 2.5 million driver's licenses with smart cards. The government wants private companies to build...

Over-The-Air Device Management: Can SIM Platform Vendors Deliver?: As suppliers of platforms that manage SIM cards over the air battle for market share, they are expanding into mobile device management. Are they getting their sales pitches across to operators?
October 1, 2006... As mobile phones and SIM cards become more sophisticated, operators increasingly want to reach out to the devices and SIMs in their subscribers' pockets to manage the applications stored there. That explains the acquisition by...

OTA SIM Platforms-The Players.(over-the-air )(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... The three major over-the-air SIM platform providers are offering more download features to SIMs and are delving into mobile device management. Vendor, base Major customers Gemalto, Orange, France (multiple...

Proposal Heats Up High-Speed SIM Debate.(Nokia Corp.)(Vodafone Group PLC)
October 1, 2006... Top handset maker Nokia and UK-based Vodafone, the largest mobile network operator group by revenue, hope their recent proposal to standards makers will resolve the impasse over technology options for a high-speed SIM. The two companies,...

Global National ID Survey: Smart Cards Advance, But Slowly.
October 1, 2006... Each year brings more announcements from governments of plans to use smart cards as national identity documents. Some of those plans become rollouts, while others are delayed, modified or canceled due to budgetary constraints or political...

Smart Card-Based National ID Projects.(identification)(Table)
October 1, 2006... Country Launch Cards Cards Biometrics Mandatory? Extra Features Date Issued Projected (existing or planned) ASIA...

Getting A Clue About Contactless.
October 1, 2006... Bob Martin, manager of Andiamo, a pizza restaurant in the heart of New York City, where millions of consumers have contactless payment cards, says he often has a customer hand him a contactless card rather than tapping it on the payment...

U.S. Contactless Issuers.(American Express Co.)(Citibank N.A. (New York, New York))(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Issuer Number Brand Credit/debit Chase 7 million Visa, MC credit Citibank 2.5 million MC debit KeyBank 2.2 million MC debit American Express 2...

Japan's Crowded Contactless Field.
October 1, 2006... Scheme Main backer Cards/ Merchant devices locations Edy BitWallet 19.2 million 35,000 Suica JR East 12.9 million 6,700...

'More Than A Transit Card' In Hong Kong And Singapore.(Octopus Cards Ltd.)(Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Ltd.)
October 1, 2006... In Hong Kong and Singapore, operators of contactless transit card systems are moving to increase use of their cards in shops and restaurants. And Hong Kong's Octopus Cards Ltd. is moving beyond Hong Kong. The Fairwood Fast Food chain...

Standing Out From The Crowd: A few banks have put new applications, such as loyalty programs and contactless payment, onto EMV cards. What's holding back the rest?
October 1, 2006... A chip-based loyalty program came first. Then, earlier this year, Turkey's Garanti Bank began issuing some 20,000 contactless payment cards with MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass application. It was Europe's first commercial PayPass pilot. ...

A Sampling of Multiapplication Projects.
October 1, 2006... Issuer Project Comments Garanti Bank, Turkey loyalty credit cards Launched contactless pilot this year PostFinance,...

Cartes 2006 Conference Programme.
October 1, 2006... Innovations Applications Technologies 7, 8, 9 November 2006 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre - France www.cartes.com The world leading event for smart card and identification special features Canada: Country...

Advertising Index.(Directory)(Directory)
October 1, 2006... Atmel 37 Web site: www.atmel.com/ad/securitysolutions Bowe Systec 11 Web site: www.boewe-systec.de Cartes 47 Web site: www.cartes.com E-mail: cartesexposium.fr Datacard Group 39 Web site:...

Contact Our Advertising Sales Representatives.
October 1, 2006... United States and Canada Jim Baker phone +1 312 983 6179 fax +1 312 913 1334 Europe & Asia Bernard Pingree Jean-Charles Abeille phone + 33 (01) 46 43 00 66 fax + 33 (01) 46 43 01 34 bernard.pingreeinfopac.fr...