Gemalto has announced the launch of industry-first 5G SIM in order to meet operator requirements of 5G rollout in 2019. It will be available in all SIM form factors including removable SIM, M2M SIM and eSIM, during the first half of 2019. The company claims that 5G SIM brings improved data privacy and provides seamless 5G global Roaming imposed by the latest standards. The company has also added enhanced protection against hacking as well.
The 5G SIM is compliant with the latest ETSI 3GPP specifications and SIMalliance recommendations. “The 5G SIM provides the foundation of trust in this next generation mobile network for operators and other stakeholders in the eco-system” said Emmanuel Unguran, EVP Mobile Services & IoT Business Unit, for Gemalto. “It will help operators unleash the full 5G potential, maximize their network investments, and simplify new service deployment with full backward compatibility to previous 3G/4G technology.”
The new 5G SIM comes loaded with key benefits include full anonymisation of end-to-end subscriber identities with the help of onboard identity encryption. It also eliminates the potential to misuse information to locate and trace individuals, or collect personal data, and ensures mobile operators comply with regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
The year 2019 is marked with the revolution of 5G as multiple equipment makers are investing their resources to develop the 5G-ready network for future deployments. By 2024, 5G Network coverage is expected to reach 40% of the global population and will account for 1.5 billion subscriptions.