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You most likely use it every day, yet if someone
asked you how it works, you’d have a hard
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time explaining it. I’m not talking about
Physics here, it’s all about your SIM card,
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that little chip in your phone. So let’s
figure it out!
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When was it invented?
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First of all, have you ever wondered what
SIM stands for? It actually means subscriber
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identity module or subscriber identification module.
The first SIM card in the world was developed
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in 1991 by the German company Giesecke & Devrient.
They sold 300 SIM cards to Radiolinja, a Finnish
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wireless network operator. In 1992, they sold
the first GSM mobile phone with a SIM card;
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it was a Nokia 1101. Today, it’s hard to
find a person who’s never used a SIM card
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– over 7 billion gadgets around the world
use them to make calls, send SMS and surf
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the web. Experts predict this number is going
to grow to 20 billion in the near future.
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The European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI) still holds the most SIM
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patents, but other private phone companies
also have some important patents thanks to
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which SIMs work. The largest manufacturer
of SIM cards in the world is the Gemalto company,
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with headquarters in Amsterdam and 15,000
employees. They’re now working towards the
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mass production of SIMs for 5G networks. The
first SIM cards cost more than one dollar
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each to manufacture. Today, they’re basically
worth a few cents apiece. But that price doesn’t
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cover design, development, inserting chips
into plastic cards and shipping them.
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Why do I need a SIM card?
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A SIM card has unique identification information
on it, like what mobile network it belongs
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to. It’s called an IMSI -International Mobile
Subscriber Identity. This unique ID connects
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your phone number with your gadget. When someone
is dialing your number, the call will go to
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the exact phone you have at the moment. SIM
also has its own memory. Even though it’s
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really small – just 64 kilobytes – it
can store around 250 contacts and some SMS.
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By the way, the same memory was in the Apollo
Guidance Computer used for the first Moon
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landings.
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If your SIM card is mobile, meaning you can
remove it and put it back into your phone
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yourself, you can also use it on different
phones. This comes in handy when your own
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gadget’s battery is dead, and you desperately
need to make a phone call from your number.
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Can my phone work without a SIM card?
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Technically it can, as a camera, or a device
that connects you to Wi-Fi, but not as a phone
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to make calls or text someone. For the absolute
majority of phones, a gadget without a SIM
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card is like a human without a brain. The
good news is, even if you seriously damaged
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your phone - smashed your screen or bent the
casing - you could still use the same phone
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number and keep your contacts. All it takes
is a SIM card transplantation.
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How does a SIM card work?
A SIM card basically looks like a little piece
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of plastic. It has an even smaller chip inside
that is its Microcontroller. It’s made out
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of silicone and plated with gold or other
metals to help it keep contact with the phone.
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The chip contains a processor, memory and
security circuits. Your mobile device reads
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the chip when you stick the SIM in it. It
contains the operating system for the card,
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can do some basic math, and stores important
information. This information is put on the
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chip on the production line. The most basic
types of that information are your International
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Mobile Subscriber Identity and a 128-bit key
called Ki (Key Identification). Those are
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basically your login and password in the mobile
phone world. All messages from your phone
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to the network are in a secret code. The key
to encrypt and decrypt messages is also stored
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on the SIM card. This provides communication
privacy. The SIM card chip also stores specific
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data, such as your card’s unique serial
number, the name of your cellular carrier,
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your PIN (if you’ve ever wondered what it
stands for, by the way, it’s your Personal
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Identification Number) to lock and unlock
the phone, PUK code from the carrier to unblock
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the phone and much more. Even your contacts
and last dialed numbers are there.
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Can someone track my location with the help
of a SIM card?
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This is a question of both privacy and security.
While it’s creepy to think someone can track
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your physical location for their purposes,
it’s good to know your phone can be found
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when it’s lost or stolen. And, it can also
be helpful when it concerns lost kids or elderly
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people, for example. So, a SIM card can help
to establish your location, but it’s only
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one player in the “find me” game. When
you insert a SIM in your cell phone, tablet,
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or even car, and turn the device on, it starts
connecting to cell towers to catch the signal.
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As you move around, your SIM works with the
towers nearest to you to provide the strongest
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signal. All these towers have known physical
locations. When phone companies or the police
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use their algorithms to find out how strong
the signal is from this or that tower, they
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can narrow down the search area significantly.
Services like “Find my phone” also use
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WiFi data to know a more specific location.
Of course, it’ll only work when the WiFi
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on your gadget is on. Add GPS information
to this, and you’ll get fairly accurate
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data on any gadget’s whereabouts in real
time. GPS will only be handy in this situation
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when you have cellular data enabled on your
plan or gadget. So if you want complete privacy,
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turn it off, along with WiFi, and tracking
you down using information from your SIM alone
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will be a challenge.
Do SIM cards break?
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SIM cards, like just about anything on this
planet, can get damaged or broken and don’t
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last forever. You’ll be the first to know
when that happens, as your phone will inform
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you the chip is defective. You won’t be
able to connect to your cellular provider
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in this case. Water is unlikely to be the
reason for that damage, though, since basically
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all new phones have sealed ports and jacks.
The SIMs themselves have always been waterproof.
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Why are SIM cards getting smaller?
The first SIM cards were around the same shape
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and size of a credit card. They worked fine
with the first mobile phones, but as mobile
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technology evolved and phones got smaller,
the SIM cards clearly needed improvement,
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too. Imagine fitting a credit card into an
iPhone – not the best idea, right? So fortunately,
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SIMs became smaller and more powerful at the
same time. First came the standard thumbnail-sized
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SIMs. They were standard until 2010, when
the Micro-SIM became universal. But even that
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SIM still had too much useless plastic. Some
people who upgraded their phones cut out the
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most important part with basic tools like
scissors. It was pretty risky since damaging
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the chip even a bit could ruin it all. In
2012, Nano-SIMs came into play, which are,
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in essence, just little chips with no extra
plastic around them. If you ever need to insert
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a newer generation SIM in an older phone,
there are special adaptors for that.
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The future of SIM cards
The latest iPhone models give you an idea
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of what all SIM cards will be like in the
future. They’ll be “eSIM”s, which means
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embedded SIM cards. Their size will be just
a fraction of a Nano-SIM. Forget the huge
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pieces of plastic and scissors you used to
cut out the chips! In fact, there’ll be
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no physical SIM cards whatsoever – instead,
they’ll be tiny chips on your phone’s
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logic board. The information on the chip will
be rewritable, so you’ll be able to change
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your carrier with a few easy steps. eSIMs
will be cloud-based, super secure, super fast
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and convenient to use. It’ll also be a win-win
situation for the manufactures: less distribution
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and installation costs, and better design
with more free physical space on your gadget!
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Losing one slot on your phone is also great
because it will ensure extra protection from
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water and dust getting inside.
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So, the new iPhones already have two SIM-cards:
one of the old school physical type and the
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other – an e-SIM that you can use with any
carrier you like.
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At what age did you get your first cell phone?
Let me know down in the comments! If you learned
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