OREANDA-NEWS. NTT DOCOMO, INC., a personalized mobile solutions provider for smarter living, announced today it has developed an application software to instantly switch a mobile phone number stored in an SIM card to another SIM-less tablet or Internet-of-Things (IoT) device with a simple wave, eliminating the need to physically swap a SIM card.

The Android-compatible application software, named Portable SIM App, will connect a master device and a target device to transfer SIM information stored in the master device, such as a phone number and login ID.

The solution for wirelessly switching phone numbers is enabled by combining the Portable SIM App with new chipset software that Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, developed in collaboration with DOCOMO. The chipset software will work with the Portable SIM App to control information stored in the SIM.

Qualcomm is planning to embed the software in chipsets for mobile devices beginning this summer. Since the chipset manages SIM-related functions in both the master and target devices, it is expected to facilitate the development of various devices compatible with Portable SIM.

Portable SIM App, SIM-based authentication solution for smartphones, is based on Portable SIM technology developed by DOCOMO in June 2014. Envisioned applications include automotive telematics. For example, by waving a smartphone over a target car navigation system, a driver can be authenticated to access music that the driver has stored in a cloud service. Also, driving information, such as destinations saved in the user's smartphone, could be shared seamlessly with the car's navigation system.

In the coming future, DOCOMO looks forward to offering various services and products by applying the Portable SIM solution to smartphones, equipping them for SIM-based authentication to drive interconnection between smartphones and multiple IoT devices.