Talk:SIM card

Spam

Spam links have been added to the external links section several times. I added a substituted NoMoreLinks template to the edit page.

Dmitrytorba 23:31, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Non Attributed Images

I replaced the original image on this page with one I took myself and released under the GFDL, the original was both rubbish and unatributed.

File:SIM card.jpg

A Rubbish picture of a SIM card

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Update and expansion of this Page

This page is quite out of date now....

I am planning an update of this page to reflect:-

- A brief history of why a Smartcard is used in GSM
- The benefits of the USIM / SIM to an end user
- The benefits of a SIM / USIM card to the network operator.
- The different form factors (3 now available)
- The standardisation tree for the SIM card (ISO - ETSI - 3GPP)
- SIM Toolkit and Java JSR 118 / JSR 177
- Other applications designed for SIM cards / smartcards
- Advances in SIM Cards design
- Uses of SIM Card / Smartcard in other Telecommunication standards.

I am currently also reseaching all the links required for this page as well.

Bet No One - 14 Nov 2004

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Could you also cover something about when the old 5 volt cards were replaced by the 3 volt ones? I've just bought a brand new phone that says it can only cope with 3v, and I don't know whether my existing thing is 5v or not. (And I can't find anything informative on the interweb about it.)

Best I could find, from palmOne:

Do you have an old (5 volt) SIM card?

The Treo smartphone uses 3 volt SIM cards. If you have had your SIM for a long time (especially if it originally came in the credit card format), you may not be able to use it with Treo or other newer GSM phones. In fact, the 5 volt cards are not provided anymore, and there are not many left in current use.

There does not appear to be a fixed point when 5 volt cards ceased to be used across the industry; it appears to have been driven by new handset introduction.

- Keith D. Tyler [flame] 00:18, Feb 18, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for that, I found some more. Although there's no definite visible clue about the card's voltage:

http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=25699

If you got your sim card recently, chances are it is a 3v. 3v sim cards usually have a smaller metal base for the chip (the shiny metallic part) and is usually rectangular or oval shaped.

Also, it seems that Orange UK stopped selling them in 1999 - various posts dated 2004 saying 'five years ago'.

The clincher for me was that some folks said 'I tried my SIM in my Treo, and it didn't work' but they didn't say 'and then the magic smoke came out', so I tried it and it worked. :)

Cheers, Tim.

Socio-Economic Background of SIM cards

Can somewhere add where SIM factories are located (e.g. China, Taiwan, etc?) and the social factors of those who work there--who are probably leading harsh work lives? Dpr 06:50, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

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The article is poorly written in my opinion. How about adding more technical details about how SIM cards work?

Sim toolkit

What about SIM application toolkit. 3GPP 11.14 and friends?

ERROR

"A subscriber identity module (SIM) is a logical application running on a UICC smartcard. Although the terms UICC and SIM are often interchanged, UICC refers to the physical card, whereas SIM refers to a single application residing in the UICC that collects GSM user subscription information. " BUT , AS

3GPP TS 51.011 V4.12.0 (2004-06)

Technical Specification 3rd Generation Partnership Project;

Technical Specification Group Terminals; Specification of the Subscriber Identity Module - Mobile Equipment (SIM - ME) interface (Release 4)

SAY:

Two physical types of SIM are specified. These are the "ID 1 SIM" and the "Plug in SIM".

The physical characteristics of both types of SIM shall be in accordance with those specified for the UICC in TS 31.101 [55] --210.21.229.218 08:52, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ 19:41, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm a Chinese, I read many english materials,but correctly writing english is difficult for me. --210.21.229.218 01:16, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't matter if the english is poor, somebody will come along after and fix it. It's more important to get the facts right than the english. 139.165.200.31 21:52, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

What is the number printed on a SIM card?

There is no mention of what this number is. Is it the IMSI? One of my SIMs has 15 digits, another 16 digits, and the photo in the article shows 20... --139.165.200.31 15:30, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

There are no standats on it. Typicaly It is a IMSI. But it may be an internal manufactor code..

Update required

... will be made available to every individual resident in Finland before the end of 2005 ...

Its already 2006. Please update this information. (Don't tell me its a wiki. I don't know what the updated information would be!)

Thank you --Agent007bond 19:32, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Pinouts

What do the pins do? — Omegatron 05:00, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

How much memory do they have? — Omegatron 20:52, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Depends on card manufacturer. Cards may be 16k, 32k or 64k (and more I'm sure). Memory size refers to amount of EEPROM instead of RAM because currently most variables are persistant.Kenny D 22:13, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Surely the pinouts don't vary by manufacturer? — Omegatron 03:22, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think they do Kenny D 20:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

What type of memory is used on small 2-3KB Sim cards?

Can someone answer this? Is this flash memory, or some other type? SalvNaut 16:20, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

EEPROM. As in an almost any Smart Card.

Where do language paks reside - on the SIM or the phone itself?

I'm trying to use a Cingular phone purchased in the USA to SMS with a server that is configured to respond in the Thai language using unicode characters. Unfortunately my phone (Motorola C139) only has the English, French, Spanish language options, and I can find no way to change it to support Thai unicode characters. Today I spoke with a person who swears the language support of the phone is determined by the SIM card inserted, rather than actually residing on the phone itself. IOW, if you put a SIM from the Thai carrier AIS in the phone it will magically support Thai unicode characters. This does not seem correct to me. Can the language pack support aspect be added to this article? Digivid 02:18, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

What does a SIM card actually hold?

I think the front page should expand on what data is commonly held on a SIM card in addition to basic authentication identifiers. For example: phone books, SMS messages, PXT photos?