Smartcard report from Nando.Net

[E. ALLEN SMITH]

	Anyone know anything else about this? Like any privacy protections (I
doubt it), counterfeiting protections, etcetera?
	Thanks,
	-Allen


      Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net
      Copyright &copy 1996 Bloomberg
      
   
   
   LONDON (Feb 12, 1996 11:23 a.m. EST) -- Motorola Inc. said it won two
   contracts to supply microchips for smart cards that will be used by
   the governments of Spain and the Czech Republic to administer benefit
   programs.
   
   The cards are credit-card sized devices incorporating
   specially-designed memory chips, called microcontrollers. They have a
   growing number of applications and can be used instead of cash in
   stores, at telephone booths, for pay-television and computer-shopping.
   
   The largest demand, though, will come from government agencies, like
   Spain's Social Security Administration and the Czech Republic's
   Healthcare Ministry. China, with a population of 1.2 billion, is
   considering a national identification card using this technology, said
   Waqar Qureshi, Motorola worldwide marketing manager for smart-card
   chips.
   

[...]

   Spain has ordered 7 million microprocessors, valued at more than $10
   million, from Motorola in the first phase of a nationwide program that
   could grow to 40 million cards. The chips will store the digitized
   description of the holders' fingerprints, which should help to reduce
   fraud.
   
   "The smart cards will enable multiple transactions with the Social
   Security to be carried out in a more secure manner and their use can
   easily be extended to other services," said a spokesman for the
   Spanish Social Security Ministry, quoted in a Motorola statement.
   
   In the Czech Republic, Motorola is supplying 10,000 chips for a pilot
   health-insurance program in the Litomerice region. A countrywide
   health-card project for 10 million people is planned for introduction
   starting in 1997.
   
[...]

   "These two contracts, valued at tens of millions of dollars, are prime
   examples of the growing trend among governments across the world to
   look at smartcard solutions in the administration of public social
   services and benefits," said Allan Hughes, Motorola's worldwide
   smartcard manager.
   
   Visa Spain said in December it would launch smart cards to replace the
   use of cash for transactions as small as buying a pack of cigarettes.
   
   With software written in Spanish that already is being used in Miami,
   Colombia and Argentina, Visa Spain said it intends to place as many as
   3 million "Visa Cash" cards a year in circulation in Spain this year.