GPS On A SIM

Blue Sky Positioning has shown the SIMposium in Berlin its new technology which puts GPS reading capabilities into a SIM card, reports The Register. Personally, I’m astounded this is possible…there are lots of constraints, including only being allowed to draw six milliamps from the battery, not to mention receiving the signal. “Most antennas are designed in free space, to have nothing around them. We started out knowing that there would be metal all around us. That’s our secret – how the antenna works, but when we take away the battery, take the SIM out of the phone, the signal is no longer there.” Using the phone as the antenna is quite smart. The system is A-GPS, so most of the processing is done off the SIM, and the card isn’t as robust as others, but apparently Blue Sky Positioning is already working with SIM manufacturers to start production, which could see a boost in the number of GPS-enabled handsets…not in the US, of course.