In recognition of the growing traction that the eSE is achieving in the mobile services market, NFC Secure Element Stepping Stones is the first SIMalliance paper to extend its scope beyond the traditional UICC-based SE architecture to also encompass the alternative SE form factors.

“Achieving optimal NFC application interoperability across multiple types of SE will be important to the successful creation, deployment and management of NFC services around the world,” comments Amedeo Veneroso, Chair of the Interoperability Working Group, SIMalliance. “Through our Stepping Stones documents, SIMalliance aims to simplify SE implementation globally and support the development of an open and secure NFC support infrastructure, regardless of SE form factor.”

NFC Secure Element Stepping Stones draws on a wide variety of industry sources and technical specifications in order to identify key differences between SE architectures and highlight their relevance to NFC service and application providers. It explores a variety of topics including, among others, device and service development and deployment, remote Over-The-Air management, NFC mobile wallets and contactless security certifications.

“Even though we contend that the UICC remains the simplest and most accessible business model for deploying secure NFC services, the emerging embedded and microSD secure element form factors were nonetheless important to include in our latest collection of industry support materials,” adds Veneroso. “Interest in these alternative SEs is increasing and many NFC service providers, including MNOs, are keen to understand how they can be utilised to their fullest potential.”

NFC Secure Element Stepping Stones refers to relevant specifications and resources provided by GSMA, ETSI, 3GPP, Open Mobile Alliance, GlobalPlatform, EMVCo and the Smart Card Alliance, together with past iterations of the NFC Stepping Stones document. It is available for download at

http://www.simalliance.org/en/resources/recommendations/