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Commitments to the European Commission on licensing of patents and disclosure of OTA interoperability information

Thales has provided the European Commission with Commitments regarding the licensing of patents and disclosure of interoperability information with its OTA platforms.

Patent Licensing

If you wish to enter into a patent license agreement with Thales pursuant to these Commitments, please contact:

Mr. Philippe Cassagne
Tel: + 33 1 55 01 51 64
E-mail: philippe.cassagne@thalesgroup.com

The Thales's standard patent license agreement is available for download.

 

OTA Interoperability Information

If you wish to be provided with OTA Interoperability Information pursuant to these Commitments, depending on the use case, you will find information here:

SIM Card Administration

(Commitments to the European Commission on licensing of patents and disclosure of OTA interoperability information)

The OTA administration framework has been standardized in the early stages of OTA technology in ETSI/3GPP - 03.48 - Release 98 and OTA providers have adapted their OTA platforms to be able to address SIM cards issued by different card providers.

Card providers can still deploy either fully interoperable SIM cards (conform to SIM Alliance interoperability definition) or proprietary SIM cards.

Let’s then consider two different approaches to integrate SIM cards into an OTA platform.

 

Java interoperable SIM cards

Proprietary SIM cards

Description

As a SIM Supplier, you want your interoperable Java SIM cards to be administrated by a Thales OTA platform.

As a SIM Supplier, you want your proprietary SIM cards to be administrated by a Thales OTA platform.

Prerequisite

Card interoperability validated with SIM Alliance tools http://www.simalliance.org/

1- List of services to be used.
2- Library (APIs) able to support these services.
3- APIs user manual
4- Test cards

Thales answer

All interoperable SIM cards can be administrated by any interoperable OTA platform, without any modification or customisation, neither on OTA side nor on SIM side.

Thales may provide Technical assistance / Consulting for end-to-end validation on a daily-fee basis.

Proprietary SIM cards are using proprietary commands to be addressed over the air.
The OTA platforms should embed proprietary libraries from the SIM suppliers to be able to administrate those cards.
Thus proprietary cards do not need to be modified.

Thales develops and tests the necessary API for the SIM Supplier Library.

Process Overview

A Thales OTA Specialist will manage Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.

If needed, Support is delivered on a daily-fee basis.

A Thales OTA Specialist will manage Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.
Development is done on a daily-fee basis.

Deliverables

Tests reports.

SIM Supplier Library integrated and tested

Tests reports.

Time Commitments

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Java Application Download and Management

(Commitments to the European Commission on licensing of patents and disclosure of OTA interoperability information)

Java application download is fully covered by interoperability recommendations within the SIM Alliance. Thus, as for SIM Card Administration, interoperable Java applications can be downloaded by any interoperable OTA platform, without any modification or customization, neither on OTA side nor on SIM side. Thus, to download and manage Java applications, a SIM supplier should provide interoperable SIM Java Applications as defined by the SIM Alliance.

 

Prerequisite

Card interoperability validated with SIM Alliance tools.
Java application interoperability validated with SIM Alliance tools (http://www.simalliance.org/).

Thales answer

Thales delivers Technical assistance / Consulting to the operation in a daily-fee basis.

Process Overview

A Thales OTA Specialist is appointed to coordinate Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.

If needed, Support is delivered on a daily-fee basis.

Deliverables

To be defined by the 2 parties

Time Commitments

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Sim Browsing

(Commitments to the European Commission on licensing of patents and disclosure of OTA interoperability information)

Since its introduction in 2000, S@T has become a field-proven technology with significant deployments. The specifications are freely available from the SIM Alliance (no license fee) even for non members. New S@T specifications are released each year to address the latest in-the-field service challenges, and to aim at improving interoperability.

SIM Alliance has facilitated the widespread uptake of S@T in a multi-provider environment. This year SIM Alliance will put in place a "Certification Program" and develop a test suite to better guarantee interoperability of the various S@T browsers and Gateways. This certification program is freely available for S@T browsers of SIM Alliance members or non members (specifications freely available). This demonstrates the independence between the card and the Gateway provider’s implementation.

Its aim is to facilitate the interoperability of mobile services access gateways, browsers and their associated protocols.

Let’s then consider two different approaches.

 

S@T Browser validation

Thales S@T Browser Integration

Description

As a SIM supplier, you developed your own browser compliant with SIM Alliance Specifications and you want to validate the browsing capabilities with a Thales Browsing platform.

As a SIM supplier, you want to integrate the Thales S@T browser in your interoperable SIM cards.

Prerequisite

Card interoperability validated with SIM Alliance tools.
S@T Browser compliance validated with SIM Alliance tools (http://www.simalliance.org/).

Card interoperability validated with SIM Alliance tools. (http://www.simalliance.org/).

Thales answer

A S@T Browser compliant with SIM Alliance Specifications can operate without any modification or customisation, neither on the Thales Browsing platform side nor on SIM card side.

Thales may provide Technical assistance / Consulting for end-to-end validation on a daily-fee basis. 

Thales sells S@T licence.

Thales can also deliver Technical assistance / Consulting to validate the S@T Browser integration on a day fee basis.

Process Overview

A Thales Browsing Specialist is appointed to coordinate Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.

If needed, Support is delivered on a daily-fee basis.

A Thales Browsing Specialist is appointed to coordinate Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.

If needed, Support is delivered on a daily-fee basis.

Deliverables

To be defined by the 2 parties

  • S@T Browser
  • Personalisation tool

Time Commitments

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Other Use Cases

(Commitments to the European Commission on licensing of patents and disclosure of OTA interoperability information)

None of the previously defined Use Cases are usable.

Thales answer

Thales can deliver Technical assistance / Consulting on a daily-fee basis.

Process Overview

A Thales OTA Specialist is in charge to understand the request, then will coordinate Legal, Technical and Commercial proposal.

Support is delivered on a daily-fee basis.

Deliverables

To be defined by the 2 parties

Time Commitments

Proposal can be sent in 10 working days.

Contacts

For further details, or questions about OTA Interoperability, the contacts and Entry Points are as follows:

Thales (EC Commitments BP 37V)
La Vigie, Avenue du Jujubier
Z.I Athelia IV 13705 La Ciotat Cedex France

or

Fax: +33 4 4236 6400 (Object: EU Commitments )

Monitoring

Pierre Gendraud is approved by the Commission to monitor Thales's compliance to commitments.

Mr. Pierre Gendraud
27 rue de l'Amiral Hamelin, 75116 Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 47 27 14 85
Fax: +33 1 47 27 15 85
Email: pierre.gendraud@wanadoo.fr