Gemplus Ships Subscriber ID Cards to Cellular Firm

Gemplus America Inc., Montgomeryville, Pa., said Omnipoint Communications Inc. received its first shipment of Gemplus Subscriber Identity Module cards.

Under a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract, Gemplus will supply Omnipoint, a provider of digital cellular phone service in the New York/New Jersey area, with the second-generation Sim card called GemXplore.

Sim cards contain an embedded microprocessor that monitors and controls access to a customer's service subscription data.

Separately, Gemplus introduced the Gemplus Public Key card that enables secure Internet and intranet transactions.

The technology will provide Internet commerce and corporate network access security, the company said.

Gemplus' new card will be the first release of ImagineCard, a product of the alliance between Gemplus, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Informix. The companies began collaborating in 1995 to develop a system for secured delivery of data on the Internet and corporate intranets.

Schlumberger, a competitor, recently introduced a similar product.