There’s often confusion on the role of the SIM card in the equation of your smart phone and mobile service, here’s some clarification on what this little chip actually does!
What is a SIM card?
The SIM card is what gives your phone its identity. It allows your phone to connect to your provider’s network and stores your phone number. Without the card, you cannot make or receive calls.
What happens when you transfer a SIM to another phone?
When you move your SIM card to a new phone, things should more or less be the same as an end user. The unique identification of your mobile presence (your mobile number) will be carried along with the SIM card. So if you were to move cards to a new device and if someone were to call you, the new device should ring and your old device would not.
What information does a SIM card hold?
Your SIM card doesn’t hold much information except your phone number and mobile service provider. Most of your data such as contacts and photos are stored on your device/cloud storage. Most Android phones actually allow you to save your contacts to your SIM card (although, it seems like this may stop in the near future), whereas Apple does not.
What’s the difference between a mobile SIM and data card SIM?
A data-only SIM card will work exactly like the SIM card for your phone except they cannot place calls or texts. To be more accurate, a data only SIM card CAN place calls… You just won’t be happy when you receive the invoice at the end of the month from your mobile carrier 🙂 These SIMs are typically used for tablets, mobile internet hot spots, and any other device that needs internet access.
Is my SIM card locked to my device/carrier?
As of December 2017, all new mobile devices in Canada must be sold by the carrier unlocked. Prior to this, when you bought a phone from, from TELUS for example, the phone would only work with a TELUS SIM card. You would have to pay the mobile carrier ($35.00 – $50.00) for the carrier to unlock your device for a SIM card from another carrier to be able to use the device.. The service is now free, helping consumers swap between carriers more easily, encouraging healthy competition in the mobile industry.
How to remove a SIM card from a mobile device
There are very few situations where we need to play with our SIM cards. Either you’re getting a new phone, switching carriers, or you’ve damaged your current phone and need to send it in for repairs. For your sake, I hope it’s not the latter scenario! Regardless, popping your SIM card into one device from another should take no more than 5 minutes of your time.
Your SIM card only carries your phone number, so you will, though, have to transfer your contacts, photos, applications, and all other data separately (if you’ve got your information stored in the cloud, this process is also very quick).
First, remove the phones case if you have one. Then, grab your SIM card ejection tool. You’ll need to find the SIM card ejection tool that came with your phone. If you no longer have the original packaging, a paperclip will do the trick.
Make sure your mobile device is turned off. It is important to never remove the SIM card when the phone is still turned on. It’s an uncommon scenario, but if you remove it while the device is on, it can burn the SIM.
Then, locate the SIM card tray. For iPhones, it’ll be on the right-hand side of your phone, position for Andriods vary. It is shaped like a long, narrow oval with a small hole.
Once you’ve located the tray, insert the tip of your ejection tool into the hole and press into it firmly until the tray pops out a bit.
After the tray pops out, you can slide out the tray and remove the SIM card laying within the tray. Make sure to note the orientation of the tray and the card so you can easily replace them later. If you are not putting in a new SIM, make sure to reinsert the empty tray into the device.
Turn on the device and try to make a call or send a text to see if you did it right 🙂
We hope this helps clarify the role of the SIM, feel free to reach out to info@rmcsolutions.ca if you have any questions!
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