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RFID – Opportunities for telcos Eurescom study P1346 investigates potential of RFID for new telecom applications
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is currently widely discussed as a high potential enabling technology and a radical means of enhancing data handling processes. This article summarizes the results of Eurescom study P1346 “Potential of the RFID Technology for Telecom Operators”. The study team from Deutsche Telekom, Elisa, and Telenor investigated the state of the art of RFID technology. However, the main focus of the study was to identify new service and application opportunities based on RFID related to telecommunication with a high business potential. Overview of an RFID system The acronym RFID – also widely known as transponder technology – is a collective term for contactless identification and storage technologies. Main components are a “tag” and a “reader”, which communicate by means of electromagnetic fields. At present, the tag consists of an integrated circuit with a storage part, a substrate or a printed circuit board, and an antenna or coil. It serves as information storage and can carry unchangeable identity information. Passive tags get the needed energy from the electromagnetic field transmitted by the reader, whereas active tags include a battery for power supply. The antenna of the smallest tags is integrated on the chip. Actual low-cost tags contain only the identity information of 64 to 128 bits in an integrated circuit as small as 0.5 x 0.5 mm. In the next years their price will fall under 10 cent per unit at very high quantities. Readers read and write the information from and to the tags. Adapted to the read range they use different antennas or coils. Current readers are available in PC card format, and low cost versions with prices under 20 Euro are announced. Figure 1 shows the typical components of an RFID system.
Enabling potential The enabling potential of the RFID technology can be considered from two points of view: the one is the fast and wireless input of numbers and data into information processing systems. There are RFID systems that allow reading several hundred tags in one second. The other is that a big set of tags is building a large data storage addressed by identity numbers, even if the tags are spatially distributed over a continent. Both views enable new applications and services. In the future every single item, even low cost products for the daily life, can get an RFID tag. This causes the strong interest in RFID from the supply chain management. In this domain up to now the use of RFID was limited to bigger volumes like containers or pallets. New opportunities for tracing the path of a single item from “the cradle to the grave” arise. Especially economisation at stock keeping or point of sale is expected. New business opportunities for telcos RFID also opens new application areas for the telecom sector. Regarding low-cost tags, the small storage capacity is mainly used for identification. Therefore, all data correlated to the low-cost tag must be stored and processed in a network where – depending on the application – different services are necessary. The identities can be transferred in other information, e.g. initialising information for telecommunication services. For example, a lost wristwatch can trigger the posting of an SMS to the owner at the lost-property office. In another example, an RFID-equipped bottle of wine can trigger a product information service in an intelligent home and display related information on a screen. Location identification can be achieved by determining the reader’s position. Combining tags or readers with mobile terminals can thus enable new applications. An example is a location based information pick-up service, as shown in figure 2. This service replaces the need to pick up printed information brochures or to make notes of the respective information of interest. Instead, the information is provided electronically on request. Examples of such information are timetables, repertoires or advertisement posters, which a user can see e.g. at railway or bus stations, shop windows, billboards, or poster sites. The content can be sent by MMS or e-mail. To implement that, an RFID reader with the function of a service-access-point is located in the immediate neighbourhood of the visually shown information. A personal RFID tag, e.g. at the users mobile phone, defines the receiver of the information. The user can confirm the request on the mobile device. For the user this service is very fast, simple und convenient to use.
Furthermore, the following applications are considered to have high business potential: personalisation service, access to WLAN, payment in shops, electronic ticket sale and access systems, visitor density, food security, and certification of banknotes and cheques. Risks Risks for a market boost are privacy and security fears, possible requirements imposed by legislation, and up to now the unknown reliability of the technology in some applications. Several new services can be successfully introduced to the market only if cross-company, cross-administration and cross-national agreements can be achieved. But particularly from these overarching applications new business opportunities for telecom operators can arise. Recommendations for telcos It seems that the RFID market is in a waiting phase before a significant breakthrough. New technologies for mass fabrication are ready for use or under development and have a good chance to keep their promises. RFID can be the missing element to build up new processes in production and service industries. Therefore the project participants recommend to the telecom operators to be active in:
The P1346 study team expects that RFID technology has a good chance to spread from dedicated applications to every home, office and person. The detailed results of Eurescom study P1346 are available to the subscribers of the Eurescom Study Programme at: www.eurescom.de/public/projects/P1300-series/P1346 Please send us your comments on this article. |
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