Home · All Classes · Annotated · Functions

SIM Toolkit

Introduction

The SIM Toolkit allows service providers to develop phone applications without modifying or installing software on the phone with the SIM toolkit application providing the user interface for this functionality.

Qtopia provides only basic SIM toolkit functionality as the major part of the work to support SIM Toolkit is in the modem or vendor plug-in. There are no standard AT commands within the GSM specifications for SIM Toolkit and each modem has its own proprietary commands.

For further information refer to: 3GPP TS 11.14.

Features

The Qtopia SIM Toolkit provides the following features:

Display Menu

Displays a menu from which the user can choose an option. It is possible to select an item from the menu or press Back to move to the previous menu. Pressing Back at the main menu exits the application.

Display Text

Displays text to the user. The text is displayed until dismissed by the user or for a short delay.

Get User Input

The following input types are supported:

• single digit or character
• string of digits or characters

The entered text can be echoed or hidden, for example, for password input.

Play Tone

The SIM toolkit application can request the application to play a short tone from the following list:

• Busy
• CallWaiting
• Congestion
• Dial
• Dropped
• Error
• GeneralBeep
• NegativeBeep
• PositiveBeep
• RadioAck
• Ringing

Refresh

It is assumed that the modem performs the refresh. Applications are notified of the refresh but currently no Qtopia applications are required to process this functionality.

Send Messages

SIM toolkit applications send various message types to the network via SMS, supplementary services (SS), or unstructed supplementary services data (USSD). It is assumed that the modem or the vendor plug-in performs the send operation, and Qtopia is only required to display a user-visible text string while the send is in progress.

Call Setup

The SIM toolkit application may setup a call on behalf of the user. In this case authorization is requested from the user, prior to initiation of the call. If the user agrees, then the Qtopia Dialer service is directed to initiate the dial request.

Setup Event List

The SIM toolkit application can request for it to be notified when the system is idle or when there is user activity. The application layer is notified of the event request, and there is an API for sending events However, no Qtopia applications currently send the events.

Setup Idle Mode Text

The SIM toolkit application can request for a particular text string to be displayed on the phone's home screen whenever the system is idle. There is an API to send this text string to the application layer but no Qtopia applications currently display the string.

Launch Browser

The SIM toolkit application can request for the Web browser to be be launched with a specific URL. The information is only passed to the Qtopia WebAccess service, no other processing occurs. The 3GPP specification lists requirements on the modem. For example, if the modem is busy, not available, or processing a supplementary service request, it must notify the SIM application that the operation cannot be performed. Qtopia expects the modem or vendor plug-in to handle this detail, as Qtopia cannot determine this information.

SIM Commands

The following SIM commands are supported:

There are a number of pro-active SIM commands sent from the SIM to the modem, according to 3GPP TS 11.14. These are expected to be handled by the modem itself, or the vendor plug-in and so do not appear in the SIM toolkit API.