Telecoms operators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and SIM vendors have announced the formation of an industry body working towards implementing an interoperable "universal SIM."
The industry-wide body, which includes Huawei, Samsung and Gemalto, will work towards a standard that will allow users to easily switch networks and use the ‘e-SIM’ in different countries. Also participating are América Móvil, Ooredoo, Telefónica, LG and Sony Mobile.
As a result of this joint effort, on the 5th of February 2015 the first technical definition of an operator Interoperable Profile Package (IPP) was released to the industry representatives (GSMA members and SIM Alliance) to allow any industry player to take part in this initiative in an open and transparent manner.
This definition of an operator profile package enables an interoperable deployment of eSIM for everyone, fosters the innovation and the development of value added services on top of the SIM matching GSMA business principles and enabling the use of existing infrastructures and network equipment to ease the adoption of current scenarios.
In addition, the body has defined consumer use cases and will test them globally and locally in coming months.
A GSMA spokesperson commented: "The GSMA Consumer Remote SIM Provisioning initiative is leading and coordinating industry activities with a number of complementary "proofs of concept" streams, which together are contributing to the development of an end to end remote SIM solution.
"These have been designed to help shape the best technical specification for the mobile industry as well as for consumers.
"Results are expected in Q3 2015 with the delivery of a common specification for the remote provisioning of consumer devices anticipated by 2016."
