The simple answer: Yes – through thorough testing! With a circulation of 4 billion mobile phones worldwide, the impact of a falsely programmed chip in telecom cards would be tremendous. Other than for mobile phones themselves, for which it is mandatory to pass conformance tests according to defined standards and regulations, there is no such thing as type approval for Smart Cards. In their own interest, many card manufacturers and issuers, of course, test their products in accordance to the agreed specifications; however, there is no official obligation to do so. Type approval is important to safeguard that a product meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements. Beyond the pure conformance testing, it is also absolutely crucial to test the interoperability between cards, chips, mobile phones in a life network. Only this assures that all counterparts involved are compatible and work together effectively. As manufacturer for testing the Smart Card interface in telecommunications, Comprion is actively supporting the advancements of test specifications by contributing with its work in a number of card and terminal related standardization and regulation bodies. By implementing most up-to-date test requirements into their products, Comprion’s tools for card and terminal testing help to assure that problems, like we just saw at the banking sector, are discovered way before a product launch. www.comprion.com