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Swisscom Mobile is Switzerland's leading mobile communications provider, offering their customers the latest services for mobile communications. Swisscom Mobile has joined the NFC Forum as an associate partner, a non-profit industry association advancing the use of NFC technology.
NFC Magazine: Thomas, please tell us something about yourself. T. Kummernuss: My name is Thomas Kummernuss and I am a Business Analyst in the Future Products group of Swisscom Mobile Product Marketing. This group deals with those opportunities that are beyond the horizon (time wise) of the product managers. However, our topics are concrete enough that we can say they will reach the state of mature products within the next 18 months. NFC Magazine: What is the most enjoyable part of your current job working with NFC technology? T. Kummernuss: I can clearly see that NFC is now getting concrete. Suppliers are starting to invest in NFC and our customers have numerous ideas how to use this new mobile handset capability. For a mobile operator like us, it gets touchable: new business models such as B-2-B will become possible with this capability. That is what it makes so exciting dealing with NFC as an upcoming technology. NFC Magazine: Tell us about the biggest challenge NFC technology and your company faces today? T. Kummernuss: NFC's biggest challenge is to make people believe in it. Swisscom Mobile's biggest challenge: find, understand and implement new business models that are different from a mobile operators core business today. NFC Magazine: What do you believe is NFC technologies greatest strength? T. Kummernuss: From my point of view, it is the possibility to have a fast and secure communication wherever the user wants to trigger a local service by handing over his identity or credentials (computer logon, door opener, pay for something, ...). NFC Magazine: What do you feel is the biggest weakness of NFC technology at present time and why? T. Kummernuss: Standardisation is pending, and, therefore, the wide commitment is missing. The consequence is a lack of confidence that NFC will come into the mobile phones soon. NFC Magazine: Which NFC technology industry enabled applications, products or services will Swisscom Mobile develop in the future or do presently provide? T. Kummernuss: Swisscom Mobile does not yet provide applications based on NFC. How could we without acceptable handsets available? But we strongly believe in using NFC as enabler for mobile ticketing, proximity payment and all kinds of identity services.
NFC Magazine: What benefits will Swisscom Mobile bring to consumers daily lives with NFC technology? T. Kummernuss: The user will get new possibilities like authenticating himself with the handset. He will use the handset as his identity token. He even signs contracts with his phone. And he will find well-known use cases implemented in his phone: door key, payment, carrying a concert ticket,... The innovation will not necessarily be the new use cases, but that the user gets known services in a simpler and more convenient way – by using his mobile phone.
NFC Magazine: Where do you see NFC Technology in five years time? T. Kummernuss: Hopefully, the NFC will be fully standardized by then. If this can be achieved, NFC has the best chance to reach a high penetration with all new phones sold in our market. NFC will be a well and widely known handset capability like Bluetooth or MMS today. Our customers will use it in their daily life like any other feature today. About Swisscom Group With revenue of CHF 4.8 billion for the first half of 2006 and a workforce of 16,739 full-time employees, the Swisscom Group is Switzerland's leading telecoms company. Swisscom is present nationwide, delivering all services and products for mobile, fixed and IP-based voice and data communications.
In the first half of 2006, Swisscom increased the number of ADSL access lines from 1,098,000 to 1,253,000. In addition, at the end of June 2006 Swisscom Fixnet had 3.8 million analog and ISDN telephone lines. Bluewin from Swisscom Fixnet is Switzerland’s largest internet brand for residential customers. On the online portal bluewin.ch are offered news, entertainment and shopping. Swisscom Fixnet will also establish itself as a multimedia provider with the already launched voice and planned future tv services. As well as carrying out network maintenance, Swisscom Fixnet invests some CHF 400 million to CHF 500 million annually in upgrading the network.
Swisscom Mobile operates a nationwide GSM network (900/1800 MHz) that serves four and a half million customers. The network has been enhanced with EDGE since spring 2005. Furthermore, Swisscom Mobile’s UMTS network already covers around 90% of the Swiss population. Swisscom Mobile is the first network carrier in Switzerland to roll out a new turbo network called HSDPA. Even at its inception it is approximately five times faster than UMTS, thus achieving the same speeds as ADSL connections.
Swisscom Solutions, the point of contact for business customers, specialises in providing complex and customised integrated solutions. Swisscom IT Services is one of the leading providers of IT services in Switzerland. Going forward, Swisscom aims to maintain its market leadership in its core businesses of fixed network and mobile communications, push ahead with systematic expansion in broadband communications and make further inroads on the path to the multimedia future. http://www.swisscom.com/ About the NFC Forum The NFC Forum was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor and consumer electronics companies. The Forums mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum's 80 global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability. The NFC Forum's Sponsor Members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor Members are: MasterCard International, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Nokia, NEC, Renesas Technology, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung, Sony Corporation, Texas Instruments and Visa International. Visit www.nfc-forum.org |
