Admittance Services through Mobile Phone Short Messages

A critical issue in the acceptance of wireless services is the authentication to these services. Wireless networks are available, including the home/office network, public hot-spots and the mobile networks. They will extend, including new access technologies such as 4G, and WiMax. Service take-up in these networks will be limited, unless seamless service access is guaranteed. The success of GSM, and especially of premium services (e.g. Smog, iMode) are based on seamless user authentication to the network and to the services, provided with adequate security. This paper focuses on the current developments in Mobile phone/SIM card based authentication. The mobile phone can be used for physical access (admittance) and service access using near field communication (NFC). It may act as the security device in wireless network access, using EAP/SIM and Bluetooth, or using the SIM credentials for VPN and Mobile Commerce applications. In combining these authentication mechanisms, the Mobile phone has the potential being the identity provider in the virtual/electronic world.