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WPD News Service |
Issue 68. 04/13/01
Summary
-Phonecard, smartcard and telecom news from countries: Canada, Czech Republic, England, Italy, Korea, San Marino, USA, Zimbabwe
Special news:
CARDOY votes are tabulated.
Phonecards:
Phonecard Collectors EXPO 2001
Phonecard NEWS:
-Africa report from Africaphonecards
Zimbabwe pre paid cards.. still no chip cards available in Zimbabwe, but Pre Paid Cellular/Mobile is big business.
Telecel "Mango " cards are issued in the following denominations, Z$100, 200, 300 and 500
The first issue of Econet cards with expiry dates in 1999 are in values of Z$100, 250 and 500, these cards in this design are no longer available and the latest issue are the "Buddie" cards.
Econet "Buddie" cards are issued in the following denominations Z$100, 150, 200, 250, 500 and 1500. When you consider that the highest value chip card is Z$200 then Z$1500 is a very high value.
-New phonecard set issued by Canadian phone company-Telus. The
new cards will be a set of 4 cards featuring the band BEAVER. Telus merged
with Canadian Baby Bells such as BCTel and Quebectel to create a telecom
giant. Telus has chip phonecards and will be producing numerous cards in
the future. Stay tuned and be sure to watch the Telus cards!
-Talkhome Communications has produced a new utility card targeting the
Hispanic market. 
The
card is issued in three denominations: $5, $10 and $20. The first run has a
total mintage of 100,000. It is called El Premio Mayor and it is Coded
TK-4. Collect Talkhome phonecards. See WPD's
Talkhome catalogue!
-GPA has produced 3 new cards to add to their line of phonecards. There are GPAu11-13 utility cards. See the GPA catalogue here!
-More news from Italy from Alessandro
I hope you are interested to the news about Italian scenario.
About 2 weeks ago I wrote to the mailing list about the first TELECOM
ITALIA
public chipcard (second after the complimentary prototype called n°0). Last week-end after a long research I've found a public phone of another
Telephone Company that issue Chipcards. This company is called PIT-TEL and the telephones are from the same model of
ALBACOM produced by IPM Group.
Telephones are sited in private shops that sell the Chipcards. You can find 5 "different" chipcards: different for the value 3.000,
5.000, 10.000, 20.000 and 50.000 Lire Italiane.
So at the moment the following companies issue chip/magnetic cards:
TelecomItalia Urmet changing to Chip
Infostrada Urmet
Albacom Chip
PitTel Chip
Rslcom Chip
-Moneycard.com and ATT has issued a very special set of Beanie-State coin phonecards.
Set of 11 Includes: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, & New York. The 6 cards to your left were given out in Feb, 2001 at Toy Fair in New York by Timeless Toys, Inc. The first 11 States were issued with long-distance time by AT&T.
250 were made of each card (except 325 printed of New York) and each has 5 minutes of phone time (expires 4/30/02). There
cards are topical, because the state coins feature boats, animals and much
more. To see all the cards or purchase the set contact
Moneycard.com!
-New British Telecom card
You to can have this collectable phonecard in your collection.
Become a member of the UK 'Telephone Card Club' and this phonecard will be included in your membership FREE. Our club card cannot be purchased separately, and will only be available until September 2001. After that the card is withdrawn from circulation, thus making it a very desirable card indeed. Contact the TCCGB at our club address, or here on the web site for details. Membership subscriptions can be found on the 'Membership Page'.
www.telephonecardclub.com
-Telefonia Sammarinese has finished its zodiac set with four newly issued cards: The horse, the monkey, the snake and the rat. The cards carry 2000, 3.000, 5.000 and 10.000 Lire respectively and only 9,000 produced.
-Smartcard News:
Gemplus, the leading smart card solutions provider, has announced today – in concert with Nextel Communications, Inc.’s
announcement of the i85 phone by Motorola®– that it has been chosen by Nextel as the provider of SIM cards for the Motorola wireless phone. These SIM cards are the first in the world to be manufactured to a specification other than the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). That means North American users of non-GSM phones can enjoy the same advanced features and high security that wireless customers in Europe and Asia have come to expect.
Gemplus is manufacturing the SIM cards for Nextel to iDEN® standard specifications. This Motorola technology supports voice, data, short messages and other features in one phone. It operates in the 800 MHz and 1.5 GHz bands and is based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access).
A key benefit of the Gemplus SIM card for Nextel and its customers is enhanced security, with a strongly encrypted "handshake" between the user and the network that provides a highly dependable means of user identification. SIM cards create the freedom for users to roam internationally without losing their personal set-ups and to change wireless terminals as they wish, without calling customer care. SIM cards also open the door to application security for mobile commerce and wireless Intranet.
The integration with Motorola was the first of its kind: successful integration of a SIM card in a mass-market non-GSM phone.
gemplus.com
Smart Cards And Biometrics To Speed Travel Through Canadian Airports
Three Canadian government agencies plan to offer frequent travelers smart cards that will let them pass quickly through customs and immigration booths at eight major Canadian airports. A traveler who qualifies as low risk will receive a chip card and be able to enter the country after having his or her iris scanned upon arrival. A digitized version of the iris scan is compared with data stored on the chip card at enrollment. The first phase is to begin early next year at the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal airports. The program is to be expanded in the fall of 2002 to airports at Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax, say officials at the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. The customs department has joined with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canadian Passport Office and the Canadian Airports Council to form a joint venture called Expedited Passenger Processing System to implement the project. The Vancouver airport already allows 4,000 frequent travelers to enter quickly using smart cards and hand-recognition technology. A spokesperson for the customs agency says the new chip card may have additional features that would allow travelers also to use their cards at hotels and car-rental agencies. The iris-recognition technology will be supplied by Iridian Technologies, Moorestown, N.J. (4/4)
Mondex Has Big Plans For South Korea
South Korea soon may boast the world’s largest rollout of Mondex electronic cash smart cards. There will be 540,000 Mondex cards in South Korea by the end of this year and 7 million cards by 2003, predicts K.B. Kim, CEO of Mondex Korea, a company whose stakeholders include MasterCard International, Kookmin Credit Card Co. and computer maker Sunnyvale, CA-based Amdahl Corp. MasterCard owns 51% of London-based Mondex International. There are only about 1 million Mondex cards in use worldwide In South Korea, 23,000 Mondex cards have been issued to employees and visitors at CoEx, a major shopping mall and convention center in Seoul. Kookmin Credit Card Co., one of South Korea’s top issuers, unveiled the Kookmin Trade Pass smart card in February, with Mondex and MasterCard credit and debit features on the chip. Kookmin plans to distribute 100,000 Trade Pass cards this year, say MasterCard officials. In its latest deal, Mondex Korea has signed an agreement with Kyonggi Province surrounding Seoul for use of Mondex cards in a pilot with 1,500 provincial employees. A rollout of at least 20,000 cards will follow this summer, with consumers receiving cards they can use to pay transit fares, store movie tickets, pay for meals at fast food restaurants and as a student ID card, Kim says.
Boston Theater To Put Tickets On A Smart Card
Boston moviegoers soon will be able to download movie tickets from a Web site onto a smart card and enter a theater by waving the chip card past a card-reading device. The Boston pilot, expected to begin this spring, will test a new smart card called WavePass from Chandler, AZ-based AmaTech USA Inc., a subsidiary of German contactless smart card vendor AmaTech AG. The test will take place at a theater owned by Dedham, MA-based National Amusements, which owns 1,390 movie screens in the United States, United Kingdom and Latin America. AmaTech hopes to roll out WavePass in the fall, says Alicia Espericueta, marketing manager. She says a consumer will receive a kit with a non-contact smart card that communicates with a reader via radio frequency, a card reader for their personal computer and related software. The package will cost under $30. Espericueta says some entertainment venues may provide the kit free to consumers, while others charge for the card and device. Besides downloading tickets that they charge to a credit card account, consumers also will be able to download electronic cash onto the smart card for use at concession stands. Espericueta says similar smart card-based ticketing programs failed because consumers who put electronic tickets on their cards still had to stand online at the theater to gain admission. "Here they have the instant gratification of seeing the ticket on the smart card and knowing they don’t have to stand online again at the box office," she says. (3-29)
Fleet Plans Chip-Based Loyalty Program
Horsham, PA-based Fleet Credit Card Services is setting the stage for a merchant loyalty program based on smart cards with its recently launched Fusion Rewards program. "We needed a rewards program, so we created one that is competitive with other rewards programs in the marketplace," says David Hijirida, Fleet’s vice president of e-business. "The next phase is to establish a chip-based loyalty program and then tie the two together." Fleet is working with Visa U.S.A. to sign up merchants for the smart card loyalty program. Participating merchants must install point-of-sale terminals with chip card readers at their stores for downloading loyalty programs onto the chip and keeping track of the cardholder’s points, says Hijirida. The chip on the Fusion credit card can store up to 36 loyalty programs. Hijirida would not disclose which merchants Fleet and Visa U.S.A. are working with. Fleet and Visa U.S.A. also are discussing merchant incentive programs to take the sting out of investing in new terminals, says Hijirida. The program may be launched in the fourth quarter, says Hijirida. In the meantime, Fusion cardholders can pay a $35 annual fee to enroll in the Fusion Rewards program, which does not use the credit card’s chip. They earn one point for each dollar spent on the card, and they can redeem points for airline tickets or merchandise from retailers, including Palm, Waterford and Sony. Cardholders can cash in as few as 2,500 points for merchandise; air travel rewards start at 5,000 points. If cardholders enroll before April 23, they receive 1,000 bonus points. (3/29)
Swedish Tax Authority Orders 20,000 Smart Cards
The taxation authority in Sweden has ordered 20,000 smart cards with digital certificates to secure the agency’s internal computer networks. Supplying the cards is Setec Card AB, a subsidiary of Finnish card vendor Setec Oy. Setec is the primary supplier to the growing Swedish market for smart cards with digital credentials, says Evald Persson, marketing manager for Posten AB, the Swedish post office that verifies the identity of individuals and issues digital certificates for the EID cards. Setec supplied 50,000 EID cards to Sweden last year, as Sweden Post began issuing certificates in large numbers. Persson predicts growing demand this year from government agencies that want to offer citizens electronic services and from the health care industry, which has 500,000 workers who often want to exchange confidential data electronically. Setec also has delivered 10,000 smart cards with digital certificates to the Finnish market, say company officials. (3/28)
Czech Government Rolls Out ID Card For Network Access
Employees of the Finance Ministry in the Czech Republic will use digital certificates to log onto the ministry’s internal network and digitally sign e-mail messages and other documents they send using smart cards the department is rolling out this spring. All told, the government will issue 15,500 cards that store the digital credentials along with private encryption keys that will authenticate employees to the network and sign documents, says Guido Eckert, German-based key account manager for Gemplus International SA, which is supplying cards and readers for the project. The cards will carry a second chip and antenna for contactless building access. "Inside a government, you always have files and documents worth protecting," he says. The government, which completed a test of the cards last fall, hopes to expand the project to other ministries. Czech networking and software company Datasys and systems integrator IBM built the system on desktops that continue to use aging Windows 3.11 operating systems, Eckert says. (3/29).
Vodafone, British Agency Test Digital Signing On The Run
A problem for many a roaming employee has been filing expense reports with the home office. Although in many companies and organizations they could fill out and send in expense reports online, unless they have the ability to digitally sign documents, most probably send reports through the mail or turn them in on their next visit to the office. But a British government agency, along with large GSM phone network operator Vodafone, has launched a test of a security system designed to keep these traveling employees mobile. About 50 employees of the Radiocommunications Agency, part of the British Department of Trade and Industry, starting this month, will be able to transmit their travel expense reports on the Web from their PCs or laptops. They will then be able to sign the documents with their mobile phones, using a private encryption key stored on the subscriber identity module card in the phone. The system avoids storing the private encryption key on the employee‘s computer, which is not considered secure; or on a separate credit-card sized smart card, which would require a card reader, says Thomas Koelzer, chief operating officer for one of the vendors on the project, Munich-based Secartis AG, owned by card manufacturer Giesecke & Devrient GmbH. After an employee files a report online, he receives a text message on his phone, containing the serial number of the report and, likely, the total amount he is requesting for reimbursement, along with a small amount of other data. If he approves, he will use the private key on the SIM to create a digital signature. The private key, which always remains on the SIM, is matched against employee’s digital certificate or digital ID stored on a Vodafone server. "It’s a digital pen to sign something in the GSM network," Koelzler tells Card Technology at the CeBIT 2001 convention in Hannover, Germany. "The attractive thing with this technology is that you don’t have to buy a new infrastructure; you alreay have a smart card and smart card reader (in the phone)." (3/27)
ACG Wins 45 Million Euro Order For Greek Phone Cards
ACG AG has won an order worth 45 millions euros (US$40 million) to supply more than 150 million chip-based phone cards for use in pay telephones in Greece, company officials say. The memory cards will be distributed by Greek phone company Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, known by its Greek acronym OTE. Company officials say this is the largest order to date for ACG, a smart card broker based in Weisbaden and Munich, Germany, that outsources card production. In this case, the cards will be produced by Finland’s Miotec Oy and Hellenic Smart Card of Greece. (3/26)
PC Retailer And Manufacturer Plans To Issue Smart Cards
Milan, Italy-based computer retailer and manufacturer Vobis Network SpA plans to issue a smart card with each Vobis PC it sells in its Italian and Austrian stores to offer consumers more secure shopping online. The company, which has 200 stores in Italy alone, plans to launch the project sometime this year and then expand it to the units it sells in Vobis Network stores in Switzerland, Poland and Russia, says a spokeswoman. Vobis stores also sell major brands, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Apple computers, but the smart cards will only be issued for its own units, which will come with smart card readers built into the keyboards, says the spokeswoman. The cards will carry digital certificates provided by German postal service and trust center Deutsche Post. Vobis, which shipped about 300,000 PCs for sale in its stores last year, will allow consumers to use the cards to securely shop for computer supplies and equipment on its own Web sties at first, but plans to expand the number of merchants consumers can do business with, says the spokeswoman. "It’s to promote online purchasing and offer an additional service to customers." (3/19)
/ct-ctst.com/
Magazine Review:
TCCGB's
Issue 65 Phonecard Collector
Send to Club Address for Your Copy
£3.60p inc. p&p
Our latest club magazine should be through your doors now! Inside the envelope you will find the long awaited Club Phonecard or in this years case Stapled to the magazine!! What do you all think of the card? Could you do better? Start designing those cards for next year NOW!
New catalogues:
Macau & Vietnam
By Daniele Pitarresi & Lam Da Vu
32 pages, full color
Issued: MARCH 2001
Price: Eu 5.20
Upcoming shows:
There has been a change in the venue for VTC Belgium fair: I let you know that the vtc international fair will take place at November 24. KTA Horteco, De Bavaylei, Vilvoorde,
-April 21 Croydon Fair, Croydon, UK
-April 21-22 14th MATAV phonecard fair, Budapest, Hungary
-April 20-22 5th Lodz Phonecard Exhibition Lodz, Poland
For a full listing visit www.phonecardexpo.org
The "WPD news" is the free weekly news service of the Worldwide Phonecard Database (WPD). Copyright WPD 1999-2001