As of today, only a minority of people use 3G interfaces on PC’s. In fact, the most avid users I know work for an operator, which greatly lowers the connection cost. Nevertheless, 3G is an interesting way to get basic connectivity on a PC, since it reuses an existing infrastructure.
Still at the SIM Summit, Intel’s David Gordon made a presentation about the use of SIM cards on mobile computers. His first graph show that all of today’s mobile PCs support WiFi, while only a few percent support some GSM/3G connection. The interesting part is that he also sees this number growing to around 60% by 2010. After all these years trying to get a smart card on a computer, the SIM card may be winning it again!
And then, things get better. Beyond is traditional role, Intel has been working with the GSM association to get the SIM to do even more things. They released a document in which they explain that the SIM may be used to unify access and authorization methods across the PC, and also for content storage and DRM. The document also contains numerous references to security, including a threat analysis, which outlines a man-in-the-middle attack. The document also provides some guidelines. One of them recommends to connect directly the USIM to the 3G module, and to severely restrict that applications have to it (in particular, no direct access). This is a bit sad for the Java Card developers who would have liked to access this SIM card.
David Gordon also claims that the SIM card may be used for customizing computers (just like Purple Labs would like them to customize mobile devices). Except for content storage (which I personally doubt, especially on a PC, except for personal and private content), all of this is pretty exciting, because it means that the SIM card would also be available for additional (Java Card) applications, and that the secure personal server is getting a bit closer to us.
David Gordon concludes with a less consensual idea, with a mention of the “Soft SIM”, all implemented in software. Of course, that may have a strong interest for Intel, but as they mention, “what about the commercial role of the SIM as operator’s agent?”. More on this in a few days.
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