AT&T Does RFID

Here's an interesting angle on RFID and the telcos from AT&T.

Highlights:
AT&T is planning a wide-sweeping RFID trial in the beginning of next year, the first such service initiated by a U.S. telecom operator. AT&T supplies the global network necessary for any large-scale RFID deployment.

Did you ever think AT&T could be a key player in RFID?

Almost all of the RFID deployments of the past used completely closed systems. The RFID chips of an automaker are designed only to be read by that automaker's RFID readers. A fare or toll card from an Illinois toll road won't work on a New York turnpike.

On the protocols front, a global standard is necessary to make electronic product codes and accompanying data transparent across the public network.

With standard protocols, however, everyone with an RFID reader has the ability to access your supply-chain information.

It's no stretch to imagine that one day something as common as a bottle of shampoo, a carton of milk or even the family dog might have a presence on the global data grid.

There's that Phase 2 of the Internet again.

"As we look at the landscape for the next several years, we believe all objects will be networked," Shepcaro said.

In other words, all objects will have Physical World Hyperlinks ?