International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., and six others have joined the Global Chipcard Alliance, bringing the telecommunications-oriented standards group up to 16 members.
Other new members are the smart card manufacturer Gemplus Group of France; payment services companies Landis & Gyr of Switzerland and Elcotel Inc. of Sarasota, Fla.; and telecommunications companies Northern Telecom of Canada, Telstra of Australia, and SPT Telecom of the Czech Republic.
The alliance promotes cross-industry open standards, which could lead to integration of telephone services with banking, payments, insurance, licensing, and other applications on a single chip card.
The group was formed in October 1996 by an international telecommunications consortium.
"We have a vision that within five years, smart card consumers will be able to access their personalized applications and solutions wherever they are in the world," said alliance president and Seattle-based U S West executive David Anastasi.