A SOLUTION IS at hand for those that find it complicated to set up their 3G data connection on their notebook or netbook, as Sagem Orga had developed a SIM card with a built in WiFi hotspot in cooperation with Telefonica.
We’re not quite following the press release, as Sagem Orga claims that it’s really difficult to get 3G up and running on your notebook, something that can be the case, but not as described. Sure, unless your notebook comes with a built in 3G modem you’ll have to use a USB dongle or a similar external solution, but we’d like to know how many people have failed setting this up and given up on using 3G altogether on their notebook.
Nonetheless, it seems like the new SIMFi card will greatly simplify things, well, at least as long as you know how to enable WiFi on your notebook and connect to an access point. The SIMFi goes in your phone which ends up acting as a WiFi to 3G router to which you connect your notebook to over WiFi. It does of course require that you have a 3G handset to start with. We’re not sure if this is a better solution than to use a 3G USB dongle, but it’s potentially a lot cheaper depending on the price of the SIMFi card.
More details of the SIMFi card should be revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week and it’ll be interesting to find out how much the SIMFi card will cost. One potential upside we can think of is that it will hopefully be possible to connect other Wi-Fi devices to the SIMFi router. It’s just a shame that it can’t be used for adding WiFi to your non-WiFi feature phone or smartphone, now that would’ve been a real killer feature.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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