Here in the good old, backwards ass telecommunications industry, US of A only a handful of providers offer something called naked DSL.
No it’s not a porno, but instead it allows consumers to purchase DSL from their local phone company without the need to have a phone number. Still don’t understand? You move in to a new apartment and the first thing you get turned is the power, and water. Once that is completed you find out your options for internet access. Here in America DSL is the dominant technology, which means it’s a service provided by a phone company. Keep in mind that you have a mobile phone which you use exclusively. You call up AT&T for example, tell them you want DSL, and find out that you also have to register for their local phone service. You need to get a phone number, which you’ll never use, to get DSL. Does this sound batshit insane? The providers here who we shall call the “good guys†let you get a DSL connection without having to sign up for any extra bullshit. This is called naked DSL.
That same experience is being echoed in the cellular industry. When you think of a SIM card what pops into your mind? It is a little piece of plastic that grants you permission to hop on the cellular network with a unique phone number. What if carriers offered naked SIM cards? What if we changed our perception of what a SIM card can do, instead of being something that plugs into phones to do voice, it can be something we plug into devices to get network access.
Every phone manufacture right now is trying to make devices that can do everything but buy your groceries and clean your laundry. Why not let devices we already have today just connect to the net? Why can’t I pop a SIM card into my Canon point and shoot and have it upload to Flickr directly from there? Why can’t I pop a SIM card into the GPS system in my car so I can get real time traffic information and updated maps? Why can’t I pop a SIM card into my television and get IPTV plus those wacky youtube videos? Why can’t I pop a SIM card into a device like the Sony eBook reader and get the latest info from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and my RSS feeds all at my convenience?
Today you can pop a SIM card into a laptop and use the net, this is something mobile business users have been asking for and it’s only recently started happening. Intel is going to release a Centrino chipset in the future that will be cellular enabled. The SIM card isn’t a little piece of plastic that has a phone number; it’s your passport to the world repository of information. We need to push carriers to accept this. A beautiful future would be $49.99 a month for unlimited data and voice on one SIM card, then $9.99 a month extra for every SIM card (without a phone number; unlimited data only) after that.
Am I crazy to want this or does it make sense to you guys too?
Wikipedia gives a more comprehensive and technical definition of naked DSL