Dubai, 27th April, 2005: Ebtikar Card Systems, Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat) smart card business division participated in the exhibition organized alongside the "MENA Mobile Forum 2005 ", which was held on April 27th and 28th in Dubai.

The two day forum and exhibition highlighted several topics ranging from Messaging - Examining Key Success Factors and Improving on SMS services as a bridge to delivering new and profitable services as well as evaluating similarities between SMS and other messaging services. In addition to the latest in the field of mobiles and cards manufacturing systems. 

Saeed Salim Al Bairaq, Acting General Manager, Ebtikar Card Systems, said: "Ebtikar displayed the latest developments in manufacturing cards like 3G cards and the latest technology implemented in manufacturing Wasel and GSM cards, all of which reflect Etisalat's success in offering best services for its customers".

He added that Ebtikar continues achieving milestones in the field of manufacturing different smart cards, introducing a new SIM card for third generation mobile networks. The new SIM card has an EEPROM memory capacity of 64 K bytes and it supports GSM functionality. These features make it an ideal SIM card platform to migrate from 2G to new 3G services. Third generation SIM cards are available with Etisalat from 2nd Quarter 2004.

As the new SIM card complies with both GSM and 3G requirements, all the mobile services offered today can be accessed with this new card. The card enables the operator to offer a wide range of value-added-services such as m-commerce, m-banking, as well as information, entertainment and gaming services. It also stores valuable contact information, for example phone numbers, e-mail, SMS and Internet addresses.

The 3G is a multi-application and multi-standard card supporting both ETSI and ISO standards. This makes it easy to implement different types of services on a single card. 3G cards offer an open application toolkit platform to develop new applications and services.

-Ends-

Note to Editor
Etisalat's specialist Card Manufacturing Unit - EBTIKAR, is a sophisticated, state-of-the-art cards manufacturing unit set up by Etisalat in 1996 to tap the exponentially growing card/applications market.

This is the first factory of its kind in the Middle East which has its own manufacturing and personalization center for a variety of cards - memory cards, microprocessors and magnetic cards for multimedia applications within diverse industries such as telecommunications (pay phones, GSM, Internet), ID cards, health etc. Card Personalization which is increasingly becoming an integral part of cards, is built into our manufacturing process and this provides our clients with a completely seamless operation from start to finish.

ECS insure the best quality, high security printing, competitive prices and the capacity to manufacture over 250 Million cards per year.

Press release issued by Public Relations Department - Etisalat  

For further media information, please contact:
Public Relations Department
Tel: 02 6182173      
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PRD@etisalat.ae

© Press Release 2005