Ericsson has launched a development kit for its Trusted Service Manager (TSM) solution. With the development kit, selected partners can remotely deploy, update and delete applications, while maintaining the same security level as in a real-life implementation through a standards-based TSM platform. This means that partners can test their applications, with actual users, even in a commercial environment. Ericsson says it hopes the kit will boost the advancement of compelling NFC applications, within access control, payment, loyalty or ticketing.

“We are making this development kit available to selected partners because service providers need to take their applications from the lab and PowerPoint stage to the next level,” says Richard Anell, head of IPX at Ericsson. “The development kit provides a true-to-life setting, not a simulation and is exactly how it would work in a commercial environment. Analysts agree that in the coming years, we will see exponential growth of NFC services as more and more NFC handsets become available, and operators invest in the required infrastructure. But to gain true momentum, the applications must be tested, refined and optimized with consumers prior to commercial roll-out.”

The development kit contains two Micro SD cards and Range Extenders from Device Fidelity, as well as one NFC USB Reader, plus a test account on Ericsson IPXs TSM platform. Also included are software components and documentation, plus an example service, to enable service providers to test the full deployment path before using their own code.
The Micro SD cards work with Android smartphones, and contain a Secure Element, a trusted execution environment where the partners application runs in NFC card emulation mode. Ericssons Android proxy client enables communication with the TSM platform for remote lifecycle management of the secure applications through standardized web-service APIs.