PLASTIC SMART CARD - NEW FEATURES

The Europen Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) and GlobalPlatform have taken a major step towards establishing complimentary standards for downloading applications and management commands to plastic cards with smart technology

ETSI's Smart Plastic Card Platform (SPCP) Committee and GlobalPlatform have fully aligned the latest versions of their smart plastic card specifications - ETSI's UMTS Integrated Circuit Plastic Card (UICPC) Specifications (TS 102 225 & 26) and the GlobalPlatform Plastic Card (2.1.1) Specification.

The restult of combining the ETSI SPCP smart plastic card solution with GlobalPlatform's multi-application infrastructure is that they will now provide one end-to-end solution for secure, flexible and remote smart plastic card application life cycle and file management.

Both ETSI SPCP and GlobalPlatform Specifications define plastic card management commands and security mechansisms to download over-the-air applications and exchange data securely between the smart plastic cards and a remote servier. The aligned specificatins will benefit the industry by allowing smart plastic cards, which have already been distributed in the field, to be updated dynamically and cost effectively over-the-air, while ensuring the highest possible security schemes are retained.

This efficient and stragetic partnership produces substantial benefits for respective members and for the plastic card industry at large. Duplication of specifications has been avoided, thanks to ETSI and GlobalPlatform working together to build common technical solutions and bring to market standardised products that are significant to multiple sectors and applications for the plastic card business.