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Wi-Fi In a SIM Card
gaijin_ writes "What if, rather than buying a MiFi or using a Wi-Fi router app like those on the Palm Pre Plus, you could stick a SIM in any device and have a shared 3G connection? That's what Sagem Orga and Telefonica are promising: they've developed the SIMFi, a USIM card with an embedded Wi-Fi radio that, when dropped into any standard handset, can share the 3G HSPA connection with various Wi-Fi clients as an instant access point."
This is a technical "solution" to a non-technical problem. The ability exists today but is predominately blocked by the cell phone providers.
This quote from the article shows how deluded these people are: "it seems likely that carriers would give the SIMFi away as long as you took out some sort of mobile data contract". If that was the case then I'd be able to use tethering on my iphone RIGHT NOW.
Sure, neat technical hack. Nice miniaturization there. But making this functionality available in a smaller form factor isn't the problem.
You still need a 2.4GHz antenna, which at 1/4 wavelength is more than 2cm. Where are they going to put it? Certainly not in a standard SIM chip package.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
I think that will depend on the control you have over the functionality. Will the handset be aware of the radio? Will it be able to control it (turn it on and off)? Does it support encryption?
OTOH, it could be a portal for providing ubiquitous coverage for WiFi. Imagine having a city full of people with these (Even with reduced range to reduce the clutter). Then you would be able to access a "hot spot" from just about anywhere. Of course you'd be charged for access (by the provider most likely), but still it's a pretty cool idea...
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
The other way around is much more interesting - get iPod Touch and, if needed, connect via WiFi and this SIM card; placed in a mobile phone that is, well, primarily a good phone. Cheap. One of those with uberlong battery life.
On a sensibly priced contract or outright prepaid (I can get 4 GiB, valid for 3 months (and if recharged again before that 3 month cut-off, usnused data are added to new portion), for 12 Euro; good enough)
One that hath name thou can not otter
Well, someone would be charged by an ISP for a connection to the internet, but you don't necessarily need the internet. It's easy to imagine a free mesh network running over nodes like this, with everyone running as a repeater for the common good. Various local services (bus schedules, local maps, restaurant locations, ordering a cab or a pizza) could be made available by servers connected to the mesh network without anyone paying for an internet connection. And of course people could run free exit nodes off their spare bandwidth at home or something to give the network some tenuous internet access.
Well, Sagem and Telefonica certainly aren't concerned primarily about limitations of US cellphone market. Telefonica cares mostly about their network technology, which is quite firmly in GSM family. As is 80+% of mobile subsribers in the world.
I don't expect any drivers to be neccessary; this solution seems to be precisely about NOT using "special" phone. SIM cards typically expose to a phone their customized menu item, so there's certainly a way to control any functionality added in the hardware of said card.
One that hath name thou can not otter