Thales, Orange receive French biometric passport data support contract

Thales and Orange Business Services have been jointly awarded a contract by ANTS, France’s national agency, to provide through-life support for the biometric data acquisition system for French passports.

Under the contract, the team will secure identity documents as well as ensure dual imperatives of availability and quality of service.
Thales will also develop a modular, scalable biometric data acquisition solution, as part of the contract, for ANTS.

In addition to ensuring interoperability with any equipment provided by any supplier, the new device-agnostic system can install the highest-performance biometric, digitisation and security solutions available at any time.

Currently, France’s biometric acquisition system involves about 4,000 biometric data acquisition devices, deployed at local and regional government offices in France and its overseas territories.

These devices are used to capture digital fingerprints, take photographs, and record the personal details of French passports applicants.

Thales Group Secure Communications & Information Systems executive vice president Marc Darmon said, "Thales has assisted the French government in the production of national identity cards for over 17 years and has generated more than 250 million secure documents around the world."

A highly intuitive interface for the new solution is also being developed by ANTS and Thales to make it quick and easy for users to operate with the local processing application.

The solution will be based on Orange Business Services’ scalable infrastructure, the only provider to manage its own network both in France and in its overseas territories.

Image: Thales provides biometric passport data support for France. Photo: courtesy of Thales Group.