A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module. You most likely use it day-after-day, it’s all about your SIM card, that little chip in your phone. Do you know how it actually works? When, and by whom it was invented? Let’s check out.

When was it invented?

Initially, have you ever wondered what SIM stands for? It truly means (subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module).

In 1991, The first SIM card was developed by a German company Giesecke & Devrient. They sold 300 SIM cards to Radiolinja, a Finnish wireless network operator. In 1992, the corporate sold the primary GSM mobile phone with a SIM card; it was a Nokia 1101.

At present, it’s practically unimaginable to seek out an individual who’s by no means used a SIM card — More than 7 billion gadgets around the world use them to make calls, send SMS, and surf the web. Experts predict this number goes to develop to 20 billion in the close to future.

The European Telecommunications StandardsInstitute (ETSI) still holds the foremost SIM patents, but other private phone companies even have some essential patents because of which SIMs work.

The largest producer of SIM cards on the earth is the Gemalto firm, with headquarters in Amsterdam and 15,000employees. They’re now working towards the mass production of SIMs for 5G networks. First SIM cards price more than one dollar every to manufacture.

At the moment, they’re basically value just a few cents apiece. But that value doesn’t cover design, development, inserting chips into plastic cards, and shipping them.

A SIM card has unique identification information on it, like what mobile network it belongs to. It’s called an IMSI -(Worldwide Mobile Subscriber Identity). This distinctive ID connects your phone number with your gadget. When somebody is dialing your number, the call will go to the exact phone you have got on the moment.

SIM also has its own memory. Although it’s really small — just 64 kilobytes — it can store round 250 contacts and some SMS.

By the way, the identical memory was in the ApolloGuidance Computer used for the first Moon landings.

In case your SIM card is mobile, meaning you can remove it and put it back into your phone your self, you can too use it on totally different phones. This turns out to be useful when your own gadget’s battery is dead, and also you desperately must make a phone call out of your number.

Can phone work without a SIM card?

Technically it can, as a camera, or a device that connects you to Wi-Fi, however not as a phone to make calls or text someone. For absolutely the majority of phones, a gadget without a SIM card is like a human without a brain.

The Good news is, even in case you severely damaged your phone — smashed your screen or bent the casing — you could possibly still use the identical phone number and keep your contacts. All it takes is a SIM card transplantation.

How does a SIM card work?

A SIM card basically looks like a little piece of plastic. It has an excellent smaller chip inside that is its Microcontroller. It’s made out of silicone and plated with gold or different metals to help it keep in contact with the phone.

SIM card carries a processor, memory, and security circuits. Our mobile gadget reads the chip if you insert the SIM in it.

It Accommodates the operating system for the card, can do some basic math, and stores necessary information. This information is placed on the chip on the production line.

Essentially the most primary types of that information are your International Mobile Subscriber Identity and a 128-bit key called Ki (Key Identification). These are basically your login and password in the mobile phone world. All messages from our phone to the network are in a classified code.

The key to encrypt and decrypt messages can also be stored on the SIM card. This provides communication privacy. The SIM card chip also stores specific data, corresponding to your card’s distinctive serial number, the name of your mobile provider, your PIN (if you’ve ever wondered what it stands for, by the way, it’s your Personal Identification Number) to lock and unlock the phone, PUK code from the service to unblock the phone and far more. Even your contacts and last dialed numbers are there.

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