The Rise of the SIM

The end of the video in an article from the Mobile World Conference (about mobile tech) by the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones brings up an interesting point I was thinking about recently.

Let's say we all embrace cloud computing, it means we have to be connected all the time to have access to our documents and media. Not so bad at home, broadband is becoming commonplace and so too are 3G mobile contracts. What about in your car though, or on your boat, or your bike?

The video shows plugging a SIM card into a car so it can receive news and GPS updates. What about being able to play back song from streaming services, or getting internet radio, perhaps TV, anywhere you can get a mobile signal?

Some vehicles are already coming with SIM cards in, you'll be able to text your car, and it'll be able to send and receive GPS data (so you can track it), but it also means you have access to anything on the web.

There has been talk of things like WIMAX (long range, really fast WIFI), the 3G network seems to be groaning already it seems, but using either multiple SIMs attached to a single account (you're not going to want to take it out of one device and put into another) or being able to hook your phone up to your car and use it as a wireless dongle (known as tethering) is something I can see happening more starting this year and taking off next year and onwards.