Multi-SIM Pooled Data Plan Needed

Connection sharing times are over. Yes, true, I can use the the [Tethering & portable hotspot] option in my Android phone. Which I actually use from time to time when I want to do something on my Android tablet, and there is no public / open WiFi around. I have 3G modem in the tablet, but there is no SIM card inside. Same with my laptop. The 3G option is present there, but the SIM card slot is empty. I also have a portable WiFi hotspot, in use only when we travel in a group of friends or family to places where WiFi is not available. And finally my car is now connected too. There is a SIM card inside.

I realize, with five personal 3G devises and two SIM cards on contract, I am a little bit ahead of the crowd. But over the years I have learned many times the crowd follows. Not exactly following me, but rather accepting and adopting the trends I just discover a little bit earlier.

Yes, people will be carrying many 3G/4G devices with them. They already do. May be not five or six, but two - three is a reasonable bet. A phone, a tablet and a car.

So how about the carriers, the Mobile Network operators (MNOs)? Do they see the trend? Do they acknowledge the status quo? Most of them do not. As usual. Once identified as the most innovative service providers, now lagging behind the trends, trying helplessly to protect their turf.

So here is the deal. I have my primary SIM card in my primary phone, with voice and data contract. $30 a month. Then I have another (the one in my car tablet), data only, $10. And I would love to have three more SIMs, but I will not be paying $10 a month each, as the devices they would enable, I use on quite irregular basis. I prefer not to tie myself to three additional mobile data contracts.

I would love to have five SIM cards, with one contract and aggregate, combined monthly transfer cap at, say, 5GB. Hey, this is the product you potentially have, I want, and here is the money I want to pay, feel the scent?

The story seems very similar to satellite TV providers, for years they had neglected the fact people had more than one TV set at home. We wanted the multi-room option, they did not have it. Now they do. For years I had been using a software I put together on my own, allowing me to watch TV in the bedroom, while the card was inserted into the set top box in my living room. The sharing was over a local LAN network. But now for a very little fee I can get a second card, attached to the same account. It is obvious I will not be "eating" more, as it is rather impossible to watch two moves simultaneously, on two screens.

Same with 3G/4G data. At the moment I use the [Tethering & portable hotspot] to share a SIM card and connection. It is a workaround for a problem that should not exist in the first place. It has to be turned on and off, eats batteries and requires a setup.

They tell me this requires investments (to upgrade their billing systems) and there is no payoff (I will not buy more). I tell them one will step in front and offer this option. Then I will move my contracts over there. It is a free market and it is impossible to stop people from buying things they want. So better be ready to sell what they want. Otherwise you will wake up with diminishing customer base.