Leading industry innovators Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Thales announce the approval of the first iSIM (Integrated SIM) to be commercially deployed on the Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, enabling the use of a SIM inside a smartphone’s primary CPU.
Highlights:
- Companies declare that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform has been certified to work with the world’s first integrated SIM (iSIM) for commercial deployment.
- The integrated SIM form factor is very appealing to manufacturers of connected products like tablets and wearables who want to develop small, affordable smartphones.
- By the year 2027, there will be 300 million iSIM shipments worldwide, which are meant to supplement the SIM and eSIM market offerings.
The world’s first security certification of an iSIM by the GSMA
The current generation of embedded SIMs enables flexible “anytime everywhere” access, and the iSIM supports the same high levels of cyber-protection thanks to the GSMA’s (Global Association for the Mobile Communications Industry) security certification2 (eSIMs). With the new iSIM, device manufacturers now have more possibilities to conserve space, lower construction and supply chain costs, and retain best-in-class security levels.
The new iSIM is completely compliant with the GSMA Remote SIM Provisioning standard, just like Thales’ eSIM, making its subscriptions remotely controllable via any accepted platforms. According to Kaleido Intelligence, research indicates that the new iSIM form factor will complement current SIM and eSIM designs and that market share will increase to 300 million by 2027, or 19% of all eSIM shipments.
“We are thrilled to see that our investment in high assurance processor hardware security, made in partnership with Thales, has met the security and functional standards necessary for the Remote Provisioning UICC use case. We think a host processor-integrated tamper-resistant element can effectively enable novel use cases across numerous markets and product categories “said Ziad Asghar, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.’s senior vice president of product management.
The GSMA has granted an iSIM the first security certification in the world, according to Guillaume Lafaix, vice president of embedded products at Thales Mobile and Connectivity Solutions. This comes after years of vigorous development by Qualcomm Technologies and Thales.
The Thales 5G iSIM allows device manufacturers and mobile operators even more freedom to offer their customers simple over-the-air connectivity as well as more creative and open product designs, complementing the eSIM’s rising popularity.
The GSMA is committed to creating a “security-first” attitude across the whole mobile ecosystem to ensure that everyone can benefit from the mobile connection in a secure manner, according to Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer at GSMA. The GSMA eUICC Security Assurance program guarantees the highest level of security resilience for all eSIM products, whether they are integrated or discrete.
We are also happy that our procedures help manufacturers get their products to market faster and enable the emergence of new items like the integrated SIM. With iSIM, cellular capability has a greater chance to spread and a bigger, more varied market is satisfied.
It has taken Qualcomm Technologies and Thales several years of diligent development work to receive the GSMA’s first security certification of an iSIM in the globe. The Thales 5G iSIM allows device manufacturers and mobile operators even more freedom to offer their consumers simple over-the-air connectivity as well as more innovative and open product designs, complementing the eSIM’s rising popularity. Guillaume Lafaix, vice president of embedded products at Thales Mobile.
