The Hindu Business Line : Cellular cos explore launching 64 K SIM cards

Cellular firms are in talks with SIM card manufacturers to explore launching 64 K SIM card in the country. Currently, operators offer SIM cards with 16K or 32 K memory.

Mr Franz Haniel, Member of Board of Director, Giesecke & Devrient said, "While 32 K SIM card will continue to be the dominant product for some time, cellular operators are now looking at launching the 64 K SIM cards for niche subscribers who are looking for more value. We are in discussion with several Indian operators on this aspect." Giesecke & Devrient is a German-based SIM card manufacturer and has companies such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Idea Cellular and BPL as its clients.

Globally, cellular operators in developed countries have already moved to 64 K SIM cards. Some of the operators in Europe and East Asia have even gone up to 256 K. Indian cellular operators had moved from 16 K SIM to 32 K SIM two years back. According to industry estimates, more than 50 per cent of the subscriber base are using the 36 K SIM card.

"As data services become popular, there will be a need for more memory on the SIM cards. With ring tones, picture downloads, video streaming expected to come in a big way, operators will have to adapt to the changing needs of the customers. One of the tools being looked at by operators is to offer 64K SIM cards which will offer more memory space," said a Delhi based operator.

Operators, however, say that it will not be before mid 2005 that the first deployment of the 64 K SIM card happens in India. "There is no doubt that operators will launch the 64 K SIM and even higher variants. While the existing 32 K SIM subscribers will be first mover to the higher capacity chips, the operators may first want to push the 32 K SIM to all the 3 million users in the country," said another mobile operator.

Meanwhile, the prospects of 100 million mobile users by 2006, is prompting SIM card manufacturers to ramp up their presence in the country. G&D, for instance, has decided to even outsource the plastic required to manufacture the SIM card from India. It has also set up an application development centre to localise the SIM card as per the operator's requirements.

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