Leading Korean smart card and SIM maker KEBTechnology has released a new version of its Kona operating system for use in embedded secure elements.

KEBT is currently the NFC SIM market leader with three million NFC SIMs in circulation, primarily in Korea where all three of the country’s mobile network operators now require that all their SIMs can support both NFC and LTE as standard.

The company already uses Kona in its smart cards and SIMs — available in 75 countries around the world — as well as its NFC SIMs. Because Kona is already so well established, the new Kona eSE 101 provides a significant advantage to companies looking to take advantage of the potential of embedded secure elements, Don Hwang, global sales and marketing director at KEBTechnology, has told NFC World.

In particular, Kona has already been certified compliant with EMVCo, GlobalPlatform 2.2 and JavaCard 3.0.1 specifications, Hwang explains, so embedded secure element providers have the potential to offer the same range of NFC services that carriers can provide via an NFC SIM.

The new version of Kona has also been designed to run on embedded secure elements made by both Samsung and NXP. Handset makers can therefore dual source chips from either manufacturer and run the same operating system on both.

“As a single-package end-to-end NFC solution, it allows mobile device manufacturers to integrate with ease all of the contactless and security functions required for a broad range of payment, identity, transport and access control functions,” says Hwang.

“KEBTechnology is committed to helping our customers accelerate the deployment of NFC technology across the globe by offering a broad portfolio of advanced NFC-based solutions,” adds KEBT CEO Cho Chung Il.

Kona eSE 101 is currently being offered “to select handset manufacturers”.

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