The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) announced on Friday, June 1, that it had agreed on a new nano-SIM card standard. Apple wanted a slimmer nano-SIM, and its proposed design was supported by most European carriers. Motorola Mobility, RIM, and Nokia, however, were concerned that the Cupertino giant might eventually own the patent rights to the technology, and there was a fierce competition between contenders. It is now confirmed that Apple has the winning design.
When ETSI announced on its Web site that it had reached a decision regarding the nano-SIM standard, there was some confusion over which proposal won - Apple's or Nokia's. The Finnish company, however, confirmed that ETSI had chosen Apple.
Nokia Confirms Apple is Winner
"Nokia continues to believe that the selected nano-SIM proposal is technically inferior and not suitable for a number of applications, but the ETSI Smart Card Platform Technical Committee has now made its decision," said a spokesman for Nokia, as cited by PCMagazine. "Nokia believes that the existing micro-SIM (3FF) will continue to be a preferred option for many manufacturers and devices and so ultimately the market will decide whether 4FF is widely adopted."
At one point during the race for the winning standard, Nokia said it would refuse to license standards-essential patents should Apple's proposal win. The company now seems to have pondered more carefully on the matter, and has now changed its mind. According to Nokia, ETSI has "taken steps to address Nokia's original concerns over the standardization process, [so] we have advised ETSI that we are prepared to license any Nokia patents which are essential to implement the standard, on FRAND [fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory] terms."
Design Specifications
The standard ETSI selected is officially known as the fourth form factor (4FF), and will be 40 percent smaller than the smallest current SIM card design. The new nano-SIM design will measure 12.3 millimeters in width, 8mm in height, and 0.67mm in thickness, and will be backwards compatible with current SIM card designs, so as to ease the transition period before handset makers start building devices to take advantage of the smaller design. According to ETSI, the smaller SIM will function the same as existing SIM cards, but will leave more room for other components.
"Today's SIM card designs take up a significant amount of space inside a mobile device," said ETSI. "This space is more and more valuable in today's handsets which deliver an ever increasing number of features."
