Over the Air (OTA) technology enables remote introduction of new UICC services and applications without the need to exchange the card. The complexity of the OTA setup, however, compels network operators to test comprehensively. COMPRION’s OTA test system simulates complex OTA use cases so that communication errors in this setup are detected before expensive service rollouts.
OTA has recently gained importance due to a variety of developments such as the growing supply of uniform basic cards (instead of personalised UICCs), the increase of embedded UICCs in M2M modules, the introduction of multi-application cards (UICCs with telecom and banking applications) and the work of Global Platform standardising Remote Application Management (RAM). By using OTA technology, network operators can add or change services (e.g. subscription management, update of roaming agreements) and applications on the UICC remotely in a fast and costeffective way. This is important, as the UICC is the only secure element through which the network operator keeps direct contact to the end customer.
