Tom Hume of Future Platforms is another of our friends and has been a long term fellow traveller on this path to the future of technology, telecoms, mobile and communities. Tom wrote a blog a few days ago about second subscriptions, and had a funny line in it:

About 5 years ago I saw a talk from Tomi Ahonen where he discussed multiple SIM ownership in Finland and mentioned the number of devices he carried with him personally. "Yeah yeah" I thought, filing him mentally under "crazy Finn" and getting back to business. But he was, of course, completely right and it's happened, hasn't it?

Tom then goes on to explain how he already has now joined this group and carries around him several SIM cards in his phone, the wireless modem to his laptop, etc.

First, thanks Tom, I really do appreciate it, that you blogged about it so honestly, that yes, once you thought an idea of mine was typical "Silly Tomi" kind of thinking, and that now you've noticed it has come true.

I wish all my forecasts would have turned out that way (like anyone making predictions, I've got my fair share of them massively wrong, such as recently the one about MMS picture messaging for example, I often am asked to explain what went wrong with that forecast, ha-ha).

But on the really big picture things - that mobile phone subscriptions would exceed human populations (in over 50 countries already); that SMS text messaging is addictive; that yes, we will carry multiple subscriptions (and often multiple phones), I'm quite happy with my record, more right than wrong, and for any forecaster, that is about the best you can hope for. And thank you Tom for putting it so nicely, that even the "Crazy Finn" thinking might turn out right in the end, ha-ha..

I took a quick look through my second book, M-Profits (as it was one I wrote by myself, I'd have nobody to share the blame with for any wrong forecasts) and thought I should really make a review of the major predictions and forecasts, and report on how the forecast turned out. This could be a fun - and perhaps also painful (ha-ha) blog.. ..Stay tuned.

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Tomi T Ahonen is a bestselling author and independent consultant in the emerging areas of next generation wireless who lectures at Oxford University and is seen annually at about 20 telecoms/IT conferences on six continents. His expertise includes the business, applications, services, partnering and marketing of wireless technologies. Tomi provides advanced wireless service marketing plan workshops and business case audits for operators/carriers; new service creation workshops; and value chain analysis for content providers and assists global media, IT and telecoms companies on their transitions to a digitally converged world.

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