ETSI Postpones Vote on Nano-SIM Card Standard

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was supposed to vote on the new nano-SIM standard.

As we had noted earlier, Apple, which has the backing of European carriers, is up against rivals such as Motorola, RIM and Nokia who have proposed "nano-SIM" cards as the next industry standard for miniaturized SIM cards to ETSI.

Apple's rivals such as Motorola, RIM and Nokia were concerned that its smaller SIM card standard required a drawer (SIM card tray) to protect it. They were also concerned that Apple will end up owning the patents. To address these concerns, Apple had offered a royalty free license to its nano-SIM design patents earlier in the week, if it gets adopted as next industry standard for miniaturized SIM cards.

But Nokia rejected Apple's offer, dismissing it as "an attempt to devalue the intellectual property of others." Earlier today RIM also accused Apple of trying to rig the vote.

FOSS Patents now reports that since the participating companies failed to reach an agreement, ETSI has decided to postpone the vote.

Les Échos, a French financial daily, reports that deep divisions in the industry over the future SIM card standard made it impossible to reach an agreement at the ETSI meeting that started yesterday (Thursday) and ends today (Friday). According to the report, the participating companies have failed to reach an agreement and decided not to hold the envisioned vote. In accordance with ETSI rules, the vote will now have to be postponed by a minimum of 30 days. It appears that Nokia's overt unwillingness to license its potentially essential patents in the event that Apple's nano-SIM proposal is adopted and Sandisk's resistance to Nokia's proposal have resulted in an impasse. Sandisk, too, holds patents that may be essential to a new SIM card standard.

Prototype of Apple's nano-SIM card set inside the outline of a mini-SIM card (via The Verge)

This gives them one more month to convince the other camp to accept their proposal as the next industry standard for miniaturized SIM cards. Based on what we've seen so far, we expect the war of words between the two camps to continue.