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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
SIM cards to the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja,[10][11] who launched the world's first commercial 2G GSM cell network that year.[12]Today, SIM cards are considered ubiquitous, allowing over 8 billion devices to connect to cellular networks around the world daily. According to the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), there were 5.4 billion SIM cards manufactured globally in 2016 creating over $6.5 billion in revenue for traditional SIM card vendors.[13] The rise of cellular IoT and 5G networks was predicted by Ericsson to drive the growth of the addressable market for SIM cards to over 20 billion devices by 2020.[14] The introduction of embedded-SIM (eSIM) and remote SIM provisioning (RSP) from the GSMA[15] may disrupt the traditional SIM card ecosystem with the entrance of new players specializing in "digital" SIM card provisioning and other value-added services for mobile network operators.[7]SIM chip structure and packagingThere are three operating voltages for SIM cards: 5 V, 3 V and 1.8 V (ISO/IEC 7816-3 classes A, B and C, respectively). The operating voltage of the majority of SIM cards launched before 1998 was 5 V. SIM cards produced subsequently are compatible with 3 V and 5 V. Modern cards support 5 V, 3 V and 1.8 V.[7]4-by-4-millimetre (0.16 in × 0.16 in) silicon chip in a SIM card which has been peeled open. Note the thin gold bonding wires, and the regular, rectangular digital memory areas.Modern SIM cards allow applications to load when the SIM is in use by the subscriber. These applications communicate with the handset or a server using SIM Application Toolkit, which was initially specified by 3GPP in TS 11.14. (There is an identical ETSI specification with different numbering.) ETSI and 3GPP maintain the SIM specifications. The main specifications are: ETSI TS 102 223 (the toolkit for smart cards), ETSI TS 102 241 (API), ETSI TS 102 588 (application invocation), and ETSI TS 131 111 (toolkit for more SIM-likes). SIM toolkit applications were initially written in native code using proprietary APIs. To provide interoperability of the applications, ETSI chose Java Card.[16] A multi-company collaboration called GlobalPlatform defines some extensions on the cards, with additional APIs and features like more cryptographic security and RFID contactless use added.[17]SIM cards store network-specific information used to authenticate and identify subscribers on the network. The most important of these are the ICCID, IMSI, authentication key (Ki), local area identity (LAI) and operator-specific emergency number. The SIM also stores other carrier-specific data such as the SMSC (Short Message service center) number, service provider name (SPN), service dialing numbers (SDN), advice-of-charge parameters and value-added service (VAS) applications. (Refer to GSM 11.11.[18])SIM cards can come in various data capacities, from 8 KB to at least 256 KB.[11] All can store a maximum of 250 contacts on the SIM, but while the 32 KB has room for 33 Mobile country code (MCCs) or network identifiers, the 64 KB version has room for 80 MNCs.[1] This is used by network operators to store data on preferred networks, mostly used when the SIM
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