Come next month your GSM mobile phone can be transformed into a news centre, banking agent and shopping mall, using a second-generation Java-based Sim card carried by two Hong Kong mobile service providers.
Hong Kong is the first city in the world to adopt the new 32k data-storage smart card.
Until now, services on the Sim card have come already decided by the network provider and users could not change anything. Now, thanks to Java, users can easily enter new data or edit existing text in the Sim card.
A user-friendly, menu-driven interface will lead you to a library of applets, complete with description and file size, as well as information on what you have loaded and remaining memory space.
Users can select applets for download until the memory is full, or delete what they do not need.
Transferred through short message service (SMS), data stored in the Sim can be changed and relayed instantaneously.