Fone Forum

MOBILE VENDORS Sagem Orga and Telefonica launched a SIM with an integrated WiFi router at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The SIM as WiFi hotspot is a neat trick.  Telefonica and Sagem have embedded a WLAN modem in the SIM card.  Sagem provides the SIM and the technology for a SIM toolkit applet running in the background while Telefonica, one of the world's largest mobile communications companies, broadcasts over High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) to provide WiFi Internet access to notebooks and netbooks.

Dubbed the "SIMFi", the WiFi enabled SIM can be used in any standard handset, which acts as a universal and interoperable HSPA WiFi router for any device.

"We strongly believe that, with its unprecedented functionality for wireless access, will significantly improve the user experience," explained Remy Cricco, technology innovation manager at Sagem Orga.  "If customers can connect their notebooks to the web anytime and anywhere by simply using what they have with them most of the time and what is the most trusted secure device - the SIM card - adoption can be expected to be enormous."

See:-   here (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1592635/sim-wifi-modem-built).

Confused by this! What exactly is it? Why would a person need a SIM with Wifi built in to connect a laptop to WiFi? 99% of laptops have integrated WiFi already!

However, if this an be used by a mobile browser on a non-WiFi compatible smartphone to connect to an available WIFI network... that is indeed a different kettle of fish! However, increasingly phones now also have that integrated! So what exactly is the market? Or am I getting this all wrong, and the special WiFI SIM is some form of authentication device to get onto public paid WiFI networks?

I am only guessing, as the article was reproduced word by word from the original.

I think the clue is in the statement that Telefonica "broadcasts over High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) to provide WiFi Internet access to notebooks and netbooks".  This seems to me to be saying that WiFi will become available, through the SIM, where there is no exterior WiFi system to use.  Hence the sentence: "The SIM as WiFi hotspot is a neat trick".

Would that make sense to you ?

Ah... got it! Thanks. So I suppose the SIM basically becomes a little localised mobile wireless access point. (Like the MiFI routers that you can buy from Three). In that case, this is indeed quite a clever bit of kit, with potentially loads of applications.

You could for example use it to connect a iPod touch to the internet quite easily just using a fairly standard 3G mobile phone somewhere alongside it!

Yes, that's what I think it does mean.  But that's just my interpretation.  Maybe others can shed more light on this ?

By the way, slightly unrelated... but an ipod touch that is connected to the internet this way (or via the inexpensive MiFI routers you can buy from Three) can be a cheap alternative to owning an iPhone, and saves you getting locked into their ridiculous overpriced and long tariffs! You get pretty much all the functionality of the iPhone, but at a fraction of the cost.
See: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/myfi-plus-ipod-touch-almost-equals-iphone/
I notice Three are even bundling the two bits of kit this way: http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/MiFi_plus_iPod_bundle
Of course with the SIM mentioned in this thread, you won't need to do any of this.

You could even go as far as using it as a device to make cheap calls from the iPod touch via SIP. There is someone who dedicated a blog post to this. The posts is bit old but still valid. Obviously, with the special SIm, you wouldn't even need the MiFI device, but any old 3G Phone would now suffice:
http://lifehacker.com/378511/turn-your-ipod-touch-into-an-iphone

Very interesting, Petkow. Thanks for the illuminating contribution. :)