Last month’s theft of Sim cards from several hi-tech Johannesburg traffic lights could be a thing of the past if an emerging technology called Sim-less GSM takes off.

More than 400 of the 600 traffic lights that use Sim cards, modems and GPS systems to send and receive information were damaged and the Sims used by thieves to wrack up a significant cellphone bill for the city.

Rean van Niekerk, MD and founder of Metacom, says his business has been working on Sim-less technology for its own products, which could be used to prevent syndicates from stealing Sim cards from devices and using them fraudulently.

Metacom has tens of thousands of Sim cards in devices across the country. The company’s devices include electronic payment systems, ATMs and several communications devices for industrial communications used by companies like Eskom.

“Fraud conducted on Sim cards stolen from devices has plagued the industry for years, and the networks haven’t really done enough to help prevent that fraud” he says.

Van Niekerk says a Sim card is as good as cash to any potential thief, and can not only be used to make calls, but also for downloads of content.

The problem of fraudulent use of Sim cards has cost Metacom millions of rand. In one instance in 2006 alone, the company lost R1,6m.

Van Niekerk says that two weeks ago, the company was hit with a R12 800 cellphone bill from one stolen Sim card. “And that happened in a few hours before the network managed to cut off the Sim,” he says.

However, he says after many years of nagging, SA’s two largest cellphone operators, Vodacom and MTN, will soon release the “chip” that would have been on the Sim card, as a separate piece of technology that can be embedded in the devices built by Metacom.

“It is the Sim card intelligence integrated inside the electronics. That means that when you open the device, you won’t see a Sim card, and it can’t be stolen,” says Van Niekerk.

He says the chips used to connect to Vodacom’s network will be available to Metacom in the next few days, with MTN’s expected in the next few weeks.
Internationally, the idea of Sim-less access to cellphone networks has been scorned, primarily because integrating the chip into a device locks you into a specific network.

However, Van Niekerk says that although Metacom’s integrated chips will only access one of the networks, each device will also have a slot for an actual Sim card, where users can change to another provider if they want to.

Though Metacom focuses on the industrial and corporate retail market, Van Niekerk says he hopes the technology will eventually be adopted in the consumer market, possibly in routers, and later into handsets. — Candice Jones, TechCentral