LG and SanDisk Allow Carriers to Manage Memory Card Content

LG Electronics and SanDisk Corporation announced the development of a new technology for mobile phones, which is meant to allow carriers to offer their users multimedia services on removable flash memory cards. The two demonstrated the advancement on the new LG KC910 Renoir, showing how it could ensure that the content preloaded on the cards could be used on approved handsets only.

According to the two, network operators could freely distribute multimedia content on removable storage devices, while being able to restrict the access to the content only to their network subscribers. The memory cards are enabled to authenticate user credentials via data on the SIM card and thus delivering the content protection service.

SanDisk and LG Electronics stated that they worked closely on the implementation of the technology on the LG KC910 Renoir handset. SanDisk’s technology allows IP connectivity to the memory card in the device, providing flexible storage-based services to carriers. Operators can remotely manage the memory card through industry-standard TCP/IP and OMA Smart Card Web Server, as it acts like a network node.

“With this advanced technology, handset manufacturers and mobile network operators (MNOs) will be able to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of consumers who want easy access to premium content on their mobile devices,” said Amir Lehr, senior director, business development, SanDisk. “The new LG KC910 Renoir highlights SanDisk’s storage-based service delivery technology that is designed to enhance an MNO’s ability to facilitate content usage in a flexible manner and lets service providers customize their method of content distribution.”

The adoption of the OMA SmartCard Web Server (SCWS) enables a user's SIM card to be used as an authorization server. According to Frédéric Christophe, director standard and engineering at LG Electronics European R&D center, “True to our commitment to provide the most advanced mobile handset designs and user experience, LG Electronics is proud to pioneer in the area of Smart Card Web Server implementations and to offer this breakthrough storage-based service from SanDisk to the end-users, based on the MNO secure element (the SIM card) and the mobile handset interface and capabilities at their best.”