SK Telecom announces worlds first NFC on USIM SIM cards, adds NFC to phones

SK Telecom announces worlds first NFC on USIM SIM cards, adds NFC to phones

SK Telecom has announced that it developed the world’s first USIM card equipped with an NFC chip, and it’s being calling “NFC on USIM“. If you aren’t familiar with USIM cards, they basically look and act like a traditional SIM card that your GSM mobile carrier supports in mobile phones. SK Telecom’s new USIM card allows a non-NFC smartphone to become an NFC-enabled if it has the right software. The problem with most smartphones in consumers’ pockets today is that they do not have NFC chips or antennas built into them, so they can’t interact with NFC tags or use any of the other cool functions that NFC facilitates, like peer-to-peer or emulation. SK Telecom are set to change that with their USIM card and potentially enable millions of smartphones with NFC capabilities, and that has to be a good thing.

So, if you have a smartphone and want NFC payments or to be able to collect coupons or to swap contact details, an NFC on USIM solution is heading your way. SK Telecom expect to commercialize NFC on USIM in October 2011 for enterprise customers and will open NFC on USIM- related Application Programming Interface (API) to outside developers to boost the development of diverse NFC-based services. So, in other words, by the first quarter of next year you may well be able to give your smartphone some NFC love if your carrier supports it. SK Telecom told NFC Rumors that the cards are likely to cost around $30 -$40 each.

“Developed in line with the company’s efforts to minimize customers’ cost burden, NFC on USIM can be simply inserted into customers’ existing mobile phones to enable the use of a wide range of NFC services including mobile finance/ payment service. Previously, customers had to buy a mobile handset with a built-in NFC chip, or so-called NFC phone, to use the NFC function.”

SK Telecom’s NFC on USIM will enable NFC functions on non-NFC phones

“NFC, currently used mainly for mobile finance and mobile payment services like mobile credit card, has the potential of giving birth to many relevant services, as a handset inserted with a NFC on USIM card can itself serve as the reader that enables peer-to-peer communication unlike Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that can only be used at places where readers are pre-installed,” the company said in its announcement release.

Ihm Jong-Tae, the Head of Institute of Network Technology at SK Telecom, said, “With the increase of NFC-enabled handsets supported by NFC on USIM, SK Telecom expects to boost the creation and adoption of NFC services, which has been chosen as one of the company’s future growth engines. SK Telecom will position itself as the leader in the NFC-based business by constantly developing relevant technology and implementing appropriate business enhancement measures.”

NFC capabilities are also extending beyond payments and we reported only yesterday that HID Global has developed NFC keys and NFC readers that work with doors. So, within the next few years you may well dump your keys and use your NFC phone to gain entrance to your home or work place. NXP are also developing a similar technology that is based on NFC that will allow you to do the same with your car. SK Telecom hopes to enable current smartphones without NFC with their new NFC on USIM solution. SK Telecom also hypothesizes you will probably use your phone to gain access to your PC and we tend to agree. SK also told NFC Rumors that the NFC on USIM will support all three NFC functions which include peer-to-peer, emulation and read/write capabilities which could potentially give more use cases than Google’s Nexus S.

SK Telecom will initially target their new NFC on USIM products to China as well as their native Korea. It shouldn’t be long before the NFC on USIM technology spreads to Western Europe and North America. The new 13.56MHz antenna, NFC chip and USIM chip all work within NFC Forum standards so implementing the NFC on USIM solution shouldn’t take years wherever you are in the world. So, if you want to know how to turn a non-NFC phone into an NFC phone, now you know you do it with NFC on USIM. If Apple doesn’t release an NFC iPhone, NFC on SIM?