AT&T: SIMs are key to IoT future

The US telecom giant envisions a world of devices with embedded SIM cards.

MEMS and sensor-studded Internet of Things is already here when you include both the new devices-from smartphones to home controllers to remote data-center managers. And now with the automotive world leading the way in converting existing dumb devices into smart ones, AT&T's Cameron Coursey, vice president for the company's Internet of Things Solutions, has no doubt that IoT will be everywhere in the future.

"Anything that can be connected will become a part of Internet of Things using cellular radios, vehicle-to-vehicle [bands], RFID tags, even garbage cans that alert personnel when they are full," Coursey said in his keynote presentation at the recent MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress 2016.

From AT&T's viewpoint, the SIM card is the primary enabler for the IoT and will eventually be either plugged into or soldered inside (embedded-SIM) everything at the time of manufacture.

"Once you solder in an eSIM or plug in a SIM card, you can put anything anywhere in the world and have it report back to AT&T," said Coursey. Nine out of 10 fleet vehicles are already connected in this way and all will be by 2020 "but we are still at the early stages of how to use this power," said Coursey.

To read the full article, go to EE Times.