Written by: Susanna Friis-Hansen and Bengt Stavenow

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Ericsson holds firm to the idea that future mobile phones will be equipped with a single digital ID based on an open, globally accepted standard. The phone will be used for a multitude of trust-based services including e-commerce and secure access to e-mail clients, intranets, and even physical access to property and premises.

In April 2000, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia jointly established the MeT initiative. The mission of the initiative is to define how certain core technologies should be used in mobile phones to enable electronic transactions. To facilitate acceptance of all parties involved, and applicability in all relevant markets, the strategy for MeT has been to base its framework on existing standards, and to design it to be independent of underlying system standards.

The authors give an introduction to secure electronic transactions, explain the role of the handset manufacturer, and describe MeT and the enabling technologies of the initiative.

[First published in Ericsson Review no. 04, 2001]