Mifare, Oyster and ITSO Cards Hacked Smart Card & Identity News

Interview with Remy De Tonnac – CEO of
Inside Contactless
By Tom Tainton, Smart Card News
Tom Tainton
SCN
On the 7 th of January 2008 Motorola announced a strategic investment in Inside
Contactless, bringing the potential of NFC technologies and contactless payments closer
to the consumer than ever before. This capped off a successful year for Inside
Contactless which included recognition at the Sesames and Remy De Tonnac, the CEO
of Inside Contactless earning the ID trail blazer award for his efforts. I spoke to De
Tonnac to gauge just how important the deal was for the smartcard market and the
future of NFC.
Congratulations on Motorola’s investment, does this signal the progress that Inside
Contactless has made in recent years?
Thank you very much. I would say absolutely, yes. The interest from global brands is a reflection of our
progress, and how far Inside Contactless has come from a small start up to where we are today. We have been
in the woods so to speak for many years, and now we are venturing out of the woods.
How will the investment benefit your company, and in particular how will this affect the
consumer market?
The investment is crucial to us in that we have strong assurance that someone is helping us to push NFC. It is a
strong indication of our potential, Motorola have backed us and believe in our aims and the technology to we
have worked so hard to deliver. Our credibility has been enhanced, a factor that we feel is as important as any
financial gain. Of course, it is a strategic investment from their perspective. Motorola will expect a return for
the investment, and we are confident we can deliver that. Over the next 2-3 years we aim to have the NFC
application within 50% of commercial phones.
Is there an expected date that we will see NFC being introduced on a large scale, and in
which country do you envisage this being trialled?
Everyone in the industry agrees players such as Nokia, Motorola and of course competitors like NXP that 2010
will be the year of mass deployment. In 2009 we are already likely to see over 100 million devices on the market
with NFC capabilities. Currently we have successful trials here in France, Orange is utilizing NFC in Bordeaux
and of course London has had successful trials with the Oyster card. We believe mass deployment will focus
initially on Asia and we are very confident that it is a case of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
Does the US Market interest you as a potential pathway for NFC introduction?
Absolutely, but whereas the UK adopts a dual interspace technology with regards to Visa, MasterCard and the
London Underground, the US payment system emulates magnetic stripe applications. It is a misconception that
Inside Contactless are two separate business units with one kind of chip specific to finance and credit cards, and
another specific to applications used by the likes of Nokia and Motorola. We do in fact utilise the same IP
block and low power consumption in all our products. We are currently paving the way to deploying the
appropriate infrastructure within the US to accept our technology.
How will you strive to eradicate any concerns with the NFC technology?
I believe that we have passed this point. A few years ago issues were raised but today we have a reliable
platform and tested technology to support NFC which has been proven to be just as reliable as contactless
cards. There are certainly no additional concerns. Today’s is a different business model which crucially is more
flexible than previously. For example, it is unlikely that credit card or personal information will be stored in the
SIM card. Instead, it will be stored in a separate secure unit.
Smart Card & Identity News • January 2008
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