Telefónica and Giesecke & Devrient Team up on Flexible Over-the-Air Personalization of M2M SIMs

Madrid/Munich - Telefónica and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) developed and successfully proved a secure, pre-standard solution for remotely managing M2M SIMs subscription data based on the principles of the embedded SIM. A live test has proven the secure transfer of a subscription from Telefónica Spain to a Telefónica UK one over the air. With this type of remote subscription management, device makers can manufacture devices with M2M SIMs on a cost optimised production setup, while mobile network operators (MNOs) can customize their M2M connectivity offerings for this specific target market.

This solution will enable Telefónica and its partners to provide global services to their customers based on a unique SIM quite adapted to the local requirements. Secure profiles from MNOs can be loaded later in the supply chain, including post-sale, and their profiles can be revised during the lifetime of the device. It will, among others, allow a simple swapping of MNOs to support a change of subscription, a network upgrade or swap out, a change of device ownership or long term relocations.

With this trial, and in cooperation with Samsung and Telit Wireless Solutions, both G&D and Telefónica demonstrate that the solution for remote subscription management works. This successful test will also provide important input for the ongoing standarization in order to improve the subscription management concept.

Main cornerstones of this trial are the subscription management enabled M2M SIMs, a subscription management platform -hosted in a secure G&D environment- and an MNO specific portal developed by Telefonica.

Involving two MNOs, the demo allows to test different key aspects of this M2M solution such as loading of a subscription, transfer of subscription to other device, remote loading on a second mobile operator subscription, remote deletion and the subscription management platform user interface (GUI), from G&D, as a trigger for all events.

“The subscription management of the SIM will enable Telefónica to provide the best solution based on a global SIM and consequently the usage of M2M devices in new, innovative applications across the world,” says Carlos Morales, Global M2M, Cloud and Apps Director at Telefónica Digital.

“There are many advantages to the highly secure remote management of credentials on embedded SIMs for the M2M environment. We are helping to drive the migration of today´s SIM card personalization to an OTA-based process where security is as paramount as in today’s personalization scenarios ” says Dr. Klaus Vedder, Group Senior Vice President Mobile Strategy at G&D.

G&D’s and Telefónica’s activities are based on the good partnership and long term experience in the M2M market and the secure OTA management of SIM relevant services. This trial highlights the commercial and technical opportunities of subscription management for mobile operators and drives the standardization of just-in-time provisioning of SIM credentials.