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Trusted Connectivity Alliance (TCA) has published new guidance to enable Java Card applet developers to maximise interoperability and security across eSIM deployments.

‘Stepping Stones for Java Card Applet Developers’ is the latest release in TCA’s acclaimed ‘Stepping Stones’ series, which provides recommendations and guidelines to support the development and deployment of SIM-based technologies.

TCA’s new guidance addresses emerging interoperability considerations presented by the growing adoption of eSIM technology. It provides an analysis of key recent Java Card technology updates, along with the impact of broader ecosystem developments from 3GPP, ETSI and GSMA. A series of best practices and security recommendations are also detailed to maximise interoperability and ensure applet assets are sufficiently protected. For developers seeking practical guidance, recommendations are collated into a comprehensive ‘interoperability checklist’ to help address common challenges and deliver high-quality applets.

Amedeo Veneroso, Chair of the TCA Interoperability Working Group, comments: “To ensure seamless integration and simplify eSIM deployments across the highly complex mobile ecosystem, it is imperative that applets are compatible and secure. By addressing the unique considerations presented by Java Card technology, TCA’s latest guidance will support developers – particularly those who are new to the eSIM market – in delivering robust and interoperable solutions that enable the delivery of powerful eSIM-based value-added services.”

Bertrand Moussel, Chair of the TCA Board, adds: “TCA’s various Stepping Stones documents have played an important role in guiding industry stakeholders as part of our decades-long commitment to identifying and promoting the need for strong interoperability. This latest guidance from TCA marks another important milestone in our mission to promote trust and simplicity across the secure connectivity ecosystem.”

Other key interoperability initiatives from TCA include the release of the new, free-to-use TCALoader tool, which enables mobile operators and application developers to download, install and manage applications on the UICC / eUICC to test interoperability across different deployments.

TCA has also reported growing industry momentum for its eSIM Interoperability Testing Service – delivered by COMPRION. The service enables mobile operators, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), IoT connectivity providers and eSIM profile developers to test how eSIM profiles interact with an extensive range of consumer eSIM devices such as smartphones, wearables, tablets and laptops. This helps to proactively identify and address individual interoperability issues prior to deployment.

‘Stepping Stones for Java Card Applet Developers’ is available to download here. For further information on the eSIM Interoperability Service and TCALoader, contact info@trustedconnectivityalliance.org and visit the TCA and COMPRION websites.

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For further TCA media information, please contact Yash Raveendra – Tel: +44(0)113 3501922 or email: yash@iseepr.co.uk

About Trusted Connectivity Alliance

Trusted Connectivity Alliance (TCA) is a global industry association working to enable trust in a connected future.

The organisation evolved from the SIMalliance, reflecting the continued expansion of the global SIM industry and the need for broader collaboration. Its members are leading providers of secure connectivity solutions for consumer, IoT and M2M devices. This spans Tamper Resistant Element (TRE) technologies including SIM, eSIM, integrated SIM, embedded Secure Element (eSE) and integrated Secure Element (iSE), as well as hardware and software provisioning and other personalisation services.

TCA members are: Card Centric, COMPRION, Eastcompeace, Giesecke+Devrient, IDEMIA, Kigen, Linxens, Monty Mobile, NXP Semiconductors, Oasis Smart SIM, STMicroelectronics, Thales, Valid, Workz Group, Wuhan Tianyu and XH Smart Card.

www.trustedconnectivityalliance.org | News | Blog | X | LinkedIn | YouTube

Claus Dietze, Chair of the Board, Trusted Connectivity Alliance

Back in May 2022, the Trusted Connectivity Alliance announced that eSIM technology was entering a new era. Significant increases in eSIM profile activations signalled growing consumer awareness of the technology, making it only a matter of time before mainstream adoption was realised as the number of enabled smartphones grew. That time has now come with the announcement from Apple that its iPhone 14 range will be available in the U.S. as eSIM-only.

The decision by the world’s most valuable company to rely solely on eSIM for its flagship product is the strongest possible endorsement of the technology’s benefits, namely advanced security, seamless and flexible connectivity and full end-to-end digitalisation. And given Apple’s market-leading position, we can now expect other OEMs to follow suit.

For operators, the transformation of the smartphone industry promises opportunities and challenges. Some early-movers are already leveraging eSIM technology to support a fully digital experience that is reimagining the customer relationship, enabling simplified onboarding and activation and increased personalisation.

But for other operators, rapidly scaling towards an eSIM-first approach must now be a strategic priority in order to remain competitive.

Importantly, the connectivity industry is ready to support. Following years of extensive investment, recent growth in eSIM adoption has been enabled by an established global infrastructure that is now widely used by all major Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators.

More broadly, the ecosystem has progressed various eSIM standardisation initiatives that deliver the interoperability, trust and reliability that are integral to building consumer confidence in new technologies.

Looking further ahead, the ripple effects of Apple’s move will travel far beyond the smartphone market and into the vast IoT ecosystem.

Enterprises and organisations across the automotive, utilities, healthcare and agriculture sectors are leveraging the eSIM to enhance devices, launch new services, transform operations and maximise efficiencies. This is possible due to the technology’s flexibility, scalability and dynamic security, coupled with its robustness and smaller size. Consequently, we can anticipate accelerated adoption as smaller operators move to realise these new opportunities, creating a wider eSIM infrastructure that is ‘IoT ready’.

However, these emerging use-cases are presenting new interoperability challenges that must be addressed if the potential of the IoT is to be fully realised. In particular, the growing deployment of constrained IoT devices with limited bandwidth, power and user interfaces presents new considerations.

This means that as the eSIM ecosystem grows, broad industry engagement will be integral to solving these challenges. As an organisation that counts market-leading eSIM providers among our membership, TCA is focused on promoting eSIM interoperability across the ecosystem. Priorities include ongoing work to support the consistent remote loading of profiles onto eSIMs across deployed devices (regardless of the SIM vendor), working in close collaboration with GSMA to help guide the development of the new eSIM for IoT Technical Specifications, and positioning the eSIM as a hardware Root of Trust for the protection of IoT data. These initiatives are key to expanding the adoption and utility of eSIM technology, and support our ongoing mission to enable a trusted connected future.

For more information about TCA and to become a member, visit here.

We are entering a new age of global connectivity, fuelled by a continually expanding IoT ecosystem transforming the way we live and work. Yet at the same time, threat levels are increasing, with Accenture reporting a 125% increase in cyberattacks in 2021. This means that the need for truly trusted mobile connectivity has never been higher.

This is where TCA enters, with its focus on a number of key initiatives that enable stakeholders across the connected industries to unlock the benefits of Tamper Resistant Elements (TREs), including SIM, eSIM and integrated SIM.

Key priorities include:

• Driving eSIM interoperability and expanding eSIM benefits to emerging IoT market segments.

• Enabling IoT device security by leveraging the benefits of TREs.

• Educating the industry with the practical deployment considerations for integrated SIM technologies.

• Optimising 5G SIM technology for private networks, 5G network slicing use cases, and 5G device security.

Driving these initiatives are TCA’s dedicated Working Groups, which are responsible for anticipating market needs and developing associated, enabling specifications that leverage our members’ unparalleled technical and industry expertise. Our working groups also engage and collaborate extensively with other associations and stakeholders to support new business models.

This technical update marks the first of our quarterly reports providing insight into the activities of each working group and demonstrating how they are shaping the future of trusted connectivity.

Download here.

As integrated SIM technology increasingly shifts from concept to reality, instilling further confidence across the mobile ecosystem in the security, interoperability and reliability of integrated SIM solutions is key to supporting wider deployment.

This webinar will provide practical guidance and technical insight to help SIM vendors, SoC makers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, service providers and test tool developers support the increased development of integrated SIM solutions. Speakers include:

• Stephane Quetglas, TCA Board Member and Marketing Director for Embedded Products, Thales
• Tomasz Wozniak, TCA IoT Security Application Working Group Chair and Embedded Connectivity Director, IDEMIA
• Saïd Gharout, TCA IoT Remote SIM Provisioning Working Group Chair and Head of Standards, Kigen
• Adam Polak, TCA Integrated SIM Working Group Member and Senior Staff Engineer, Qualcomm

The webinar will be hosted in English on Wednesday 13 July at 10:00 CEST and 17:00 CEST to accommodate different time zones.

Register for insight into:

• The market forces driving integration and key use-cases.
• The concept of an integrated SIM, key standardisation initiatives, and why GSMA’s integrated eUICC initiative offers the most potential to meet increasing market demand for integrated SIM deployments.
• Technical architectural approaches to integrated SIM design.
• The impact of integration across the mobile ecosystem and associated value chains.
• The GSMA compliance process for integrated eUICC solutions.

The webinar will be followed by a Q&A session, for which guests are invited to submit questions when registering.

To secure your place, click here

The objective of the Interoperable Format Technical Specification is to define the technical specification of a standard format to be used for the loading and installation of an interoperable Profile Package in any compliant eUICC.

This specification is based on the following Trusted Connectivity Alliance document: eUICC Profile Package: Interoperability Functional Requirements. Major updates have been made to the specification to support full alignment with 3GPP Release 18, including the support of Slice SIM (SSIM) allowing authenticated access to a 5G network slice using proven eUICC security. It also includes clarifications and guidance to further promote eSIM interoperability.

The embedded UICC (eUICC), and the subsequent requirement for remote provisioning, has introduced the need for several operations previously carried out in personalisation centres by individual UICC vendors, to be performed remotely in an open ecosystem.

This document specifies the structure and coding required to build, remotely load, and install a profile in an eUICC.

It is intended primarily for Profile Creator providers, Profile Creator users (i.e., Mobile Network Operators or MNOs) and eUICC vendors for them to elaborate and exchange profiles with guaranteed interoperability.

The Profile Package, as technically specified in this document, represents the structure of data to be built by the Profile Creator and to be loaded in the eUICC for the eUICC to be personalised according to the content of the Profile Package.

The objective of the Interoperable Format Technical Specification is to define the technical specification of a standard format to be used for the loading and installation of an interoperable Profile Package in any compliant eUICC.

This specification is based on the following Trusted Connectivity Alliance document: eUICC Profile Package: Interoperability Functional Requirements. Major updates have been made to the specification to support full alignment with 3GPP Release 18, including the support of Slice SIM (SSIM) allowing authenticated access to a 5G network slice using proven eUICC security. It also includes clarifications and guidance to further promote eSIM interoperability.

The embedded UICC (eUICC), and the subsequent requirement for remote provisioning, has introduced the need for several operations previously carried out in personalisation centres by individual UICC vendors, to be performed remotely in an open ecosystem.

This document specifies the structure and coding required to build, remotely load, and install a profile in an eUICC.

It is intended primarily for Profile Creator providers, Profile Creator users (i.e., Mobile Network Operators or MNOs) and eUICC vendors for them to elaborate and exchange profiles with guaranteed interoperability.

The Profile Package, as technically specified in this document, represents the structure of data to be built by the Profile Creator and to be loaded in the eUICC for the eUICC to be personalised according to the content of the Profile Package.

TCA’s new guidance addresses emerging interoperability considerations presented by the growing adoption of eSIM technology. It provides an analysis of key recent Java Card technology updates, along with the impact of broader ecosystem developments from 3GPP, ETSI and GSMA. A series of best practices and security recommendations are also detailed to maximise interoperability and ensure applet assets are sufficiently protected. For developers seeking practical guidance, recommendations are collated into a comprehensive ‘interoperability checklist’ to help address common challenges and deliver high-quality applets.

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TCA’s new guidance addresses emerging interoperability considerations presented by the growing adoption of eSIM technology. It provides an analysis of key recent Java Card technology updates, along with the impact of broader ecosystem developments from 3GPP, ETSI and GSMA. A series of best practices and security recommendations are also detailed to maximise interoperability and ensure applet assets are sufficiently protected. For developers seeking practical guidance, recommendations are collated into a comprehensive ‘interoperability checklist’ to help address common challenges and deliver high-quality applets.

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The Open Mobile API (OMAPI) Specification defines how mobile applications may access different secure elements (SEs), including the UICC and embedded secure elements (eSEs) in a mobile device. Ownership of the OMAPI Specification has been transferred to GlobalPlatform.

The Open Mobile API (OMAPI) Specification defines how mobile applications may access different secure elements (SEs), including the UICC and embedded secure elements (eSEs) in a mobile device. Ownership of the OMAPI Specification has been transferred to GlobalPlatform.

This technical requirements document identifies the integrated UICC features to maximise service
delivery and commercial utilisation of LTE/EPS networks.

This technical requirements document identifies the integrated UICC features to maximise service
delivery and commercial utilisation of LTE/EPS networks.

This document specifies the requirements to implement a unified XML schema for SIM cards prototyping and testing. ‘SIMpml’ refers to SIM Profile Mark-Up Language.

This document specifies the requirements to implement a unified XML schema for SIM cards prototyping and testing. ‘SIMpml’ refers to SIM Profile Mark-Up Language.