To ensure a good return on investment, it was important to AnyTel to be able to support a range of service providers, future requirements as well as ensure high security mechanisms.
The Challenge
In a bid to maintain and increase its market share and showcase its commitment to support the latest mobile technology, AnyTel was keen to launch its NFC solution quickly. At the same time, as the market is still evolving and the direction towards mobile payments via NFC is still emerging, the MNO had a desire to contain development and implementation costs by capitalizing on its existing SIM infrastructure. Replacing all SIMs with secure element SIMs could not provide the guaranteed return on investment required.
Another challenge for AnyTel when considering the adoption of NFC technology was ensuring that the investment made would be flexible to future technical and business requirements. This included the ability to offer a wealth of NFC services and related security mechanisms long-term without being restricted by limited storage capacity.
The Solution
AnyTel selected the Bell ID Secure Element in the Cloud solution to deliver NFC technology to its customers and simplify the provisioning of NFC services (managing keys, certificates and NFC credentials) by using a remote environment secure element.
The solution allowed AnyTel to leverage its existing SIM infrastructure, as these SIMs – although not carrying a secure element – offer the capability required to authenticate a user. This meant that AnyTel did not need to commit resources to rolling out millions of updated cards specifically for NFC services. Instead, Bell ID provided AnyTel with the Secure Element in the Cloud solution and the SIM auto-updates. These were issued to customers with NFC-enabled handsets as an application update notice, advising them that they were now NFC-ready.
As Secure Element in the Cloud offers one application programming interface (API) for every service provider to use, AnyTel easily integrated its software with third parties. The increased storage capacity of AnyTel’s NFC offering when compared with a physical secure element provided more options regarding advanced on-device risk management and the ability to offer the latest security mechanisms.
The Outcome
The combination of being able to deliver NFC services by managing the Secure Element in the Cloud, yet utilizing the authentication capabilities of the SIM confirms the position of AnyTel as a vital authentication authority for mobile devices, increasing its revenue generating potential.
By adopting the solution, AnyTel achieved two key objectives:
1. Immediate implementation of NFC services to customers with NFC-enabled handsets.
The easy deployment of the solution enabled AnyTel to efficiently start offering NFC capabilities to its stakeholders. Additionally, the smooth integration process with service providers and considerable storage allows AnyTel to partner with a variety of service providers quickly and effectively, while also having the bandwidth to support evolving requirements in the future.
2. Execute a low risk strategy through containment of the investment costs.
Secure Element in the Cloud enabled AnyTel to gradually ease the deployment of its NFC offering to a large audience – building its expertise and market profile – yet without incurring significant costs or implementing infrastructure investments.
The remote hosting provides increased capacity and improved processing power. Therefore, AnyTel has benefited from a more refined solution as it can support limitless service provider applications, while also decreasing the time taken to provision the application (and its credentials) and execute the transactions.
Sitting at the center of the mobile ecosystem, AnyTel is playing a pivotal role as the direct channel to the consumer. It is now using Secure Element in the Cloud as part of a complete NFC strategy that will advance its offering and authentication services long-term.
*AnyTel is a fictional MNO. This hypothetical case study aims to showcase ‘why’ a MNO would opt to use Secure Element in the Cloud and ‘how’ it would be implemented. Interested to learn more about how Secure Element in the Cloud can support MNOs? For more information on Secure Element in the Cloud read our blog, get in touch or watch this video.
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