Giesecke & Devrient and Telefonica Digital Jointly Present SIM Based Interface for eSIM Management

“The SIM card has been a key component of mobile communication right from the beginning, ensuring user authentication on operators’ networks and providing a secure environment for a variety of MNO services,” stated Andreas Morawietz, Head of Marketing in the Telecommunications division of Mobile Security at G&D. “The SIM functionality has been and will always be the main physical link between consumers and mobile network operators. And just as the shape of the SIM has changed over time and has been adapted to the fast evolving demands of the telecommunications market, so have the underlying specifications and standards for the SIM.”

An important migration path for the SIM into the connected society is currently driven by the GSMA with their latest specification for eSIM/Remote SIM Provisioning, addressing an increasing number of use cases in the M2M and consumer ecosystem. Beside the backend systems needed to support this new eSIM technology, devices also must be equipped with a software component called LPA (Local Profile Assistant). This component provides an administrative interface for the user and handles local profile management. 

Giesecke & Devrient, together with Telefonica Digital, developed a solution to support the eSIM technology on devices, which are not yet equipped with the necessary LPA component. The solution is based on the existing SCWS (Smart Card Web Server) technology. It shifts the LPA functionality from the device onto the SIM. “This could have a considerable impact on speeding up the market penetration of the eSIM technology as this will enable eSIM management on existing devices not yet equipped with the Local Profile Assistant, LPA” explained Morawietz. 

SCWS technology offers the possibility to develop and distribute content-rich applications being executed in the secure environment of the SIM. The solution based on SIM is using web technologies and provides the necessary rich user interface for the local administration of profiles and the support of the latest GSMA specification.