A vision of the future

Beyond high speed data in mobility situations, LTE with bring another benefit to end users: hyperconnectivity. This means that a large quantity of day to day objects that are currently not connected, or not connectible, will tomorrow be connected in an era known as the Internet of things. LTE is likely to be a first step toward this global vision of a world where everything is inter-connected at high speed regardless of the mobility of the individual. Such seamless connectivity will require objects to authenticate themselves to the network, which revises completely the business model for subscriber identity, as new value chains with new actors, customers and suppliers, will emerge. More than ever, the SIM will be a core aspect of this business, extending its expertise to Consumer Electronic Devices, such as digital cameras, mp3 players, and digital photo frames, in the first instance. The SIM will have a strong role to play in guaranteeing authentication of the owner of the device to the network.