HID Global partners with BlackBerry, NFC smartphones now open doors

HID Global partners with BlackBerry, NFC smartphones now open doors

We have covered a lot of BlackBerry NFC phone news here at NFC Rumors, but very little of it has had a practical use in the real world until today – HID Global and Research in Motion announced they have partnered to enable HID’s iCLASS digital key system on BlackBerry NFC smartphones.

“This industry first is an important milestone in the deployment of mobile access and identity solutions using NFC technology on smartphones,” said Dr. Tam Hulusi, Senior Vice President with HID Global. “We will continue to innovate in the delivery of secure identity, as NFC-enabled smartphones represent a complementary new platform that we believe will expand the access control market and our online card services business while improving user security and convenience.”

“NFC technology will enable many new and exciting capabilities for BlackBerry smartphones and we are very pleased to be working with HID Global to be the first to bring a host of secure identity and mobile access control capabilities to NFC-enabled smartphones,” said Andrew Bocking, Vice President of Handheld Software Product Management at RIM.

It was only yesterday we reported about the HID Global pilot program that has been running at Arizona State University. In that pilot, the company had enabled NFC smartphones to act as NFC keys for user access in certain University areas on campus. With the BlackBerry announcement, HID Global will be able to activate any access control system that uses the company’s iCLASS SIO.

How the HID Global NFC digital key system works

“Instead of using keys or smartcards, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to use iCLASS digital credentials that can be presented for authentication by simply holding their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone in front of a reader, just like they do today with a physical iCLASS smartcard.”

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 / CDMA 9930 and BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370, probably the rumored BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 and BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphones activated with iCLASS digital credentials will be compatible with the large installed base of iCLASS digital key readers that are used for applications ranging from physical access systems in buildings, to student IDs, and applications that track time and attendance.

HID Global will be previewing iCLASS digital keys and mobile identity credentials using the NFC capabilities of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone at the ASIS International 2011 security conference, September 19-22, the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.  In addition, representatives from HID Global and BlackBerry-maker, Research In Motion (RIM), will be speaking about this new platform at ASIS.