UICC products that achieve this certification will guarantee that a mobile contactless application performs in a consistent and industry agreed manner, regardless of the mobile handset which hosts them.

FIME has been approved by GlobalPlatform to provide test tool and laboratory services which confirm that a UICC product meets the functional requirements outlined in GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.2 Amendment C, also known as Contactless Services. GlobalPlatform is the organisation which standardises the management of applications on secure chip technology.

This most recent development to the GlobalPlatform Compliance Programme verifies the lifecycle management functionality of contactless applications. This includes how end-users select and activate secure contactless services. "This level of cross-market interoperability is vital if the industry is to deliver customer convenience and consistency, which is a key element in driving end-user adoption of mobile contactless services," explains Stephanie El Rhomri, New Services Marketing Manager at FIME.

Kevin Gillick, Executive Director at GlobalPlatform, comments: "We are delighted to qualify FIME's test services for this latest element of our UICC compliance programme. The ability to validate a product to this specification amendment brings confidence to the market by confirming that a mobile contactless application will perform as required once live in the field, regardless of the underlying platform."

"This latest extension of the GlobalPlatform Compliance Programme provides a consistent way to directly interact with an end-user," adds Stephanie. "Many of our customers will welcome the ability to validate applications to this standard moving forward. We envisage that this will be a popular requirement of service providers."

FIME was the first full service testing facility to receive the GlobalPlatform qualification for both its tools and laboratory in July 2012. The company provides manufacturers, mobile network operators and issuers with test tools and laboratory services in both Europe and Asia. These services confirm a product's compliance to the GlobalPlatform UICC Configuration - for the mobile services sector, as well as GlobalPlatform's Basic Financial Configuration - for the banking sector.

Stephanie concludes: "We are also working to develop the test tools to validate GlobalPlatform's remote application management over HTTP specification, also called Amendment B for UICC's, and to test embedded secure elements and smart microSD cards. It is our aim to announce these additions to our growing GlobalPlatform portfolio in the coming months."