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SIM Cards Must Die

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Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#111

Post by jdietrich »

The SIM is an integral part of the GSM standard and provides a huge range of benefits. The point of their existence is to establish the identity of a subscriber independently of a handset, which has a lot of interesting, useful and important side-effects.

A very large proportion of GSM subscribers use dual-sim handsets, to take advantage of the cheapest available tariffs. This is the norm in price-sensitive markets like China, India and Africa.

Many GSM subscribers use several phones with the same SIM. Outdoor enthusiasts switch their SIM between their smartphone and a rugged dumbphone. Some ladies use a smartphone during the week when they use their normal handbag, but switch to a tiny dumbphone for parties.

The SIM makes life very easy for small carriers to connect new subscribers. In London, virtually every shopping centre and high street has someone handing out SIMs for Lyca or Lebara, two Virtual Network Operators offering cheap international calls to mainly immigrant customers. They can connect subscribers on the spot in a matter of seconds.

IMO we should be working in the opposite direction, towards a proliferation of SIM-like devices in other markets. A physical token which securely establishes a pseudonymous identity on a network is quite ingenious and facilitates all sorts of really elegant HCI.

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#112

Post by jonknee »

nnnnni wrote: post #43
antihero wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there actually any benefit to CDMA?

Yeah... Being ancient technology, the carriers have had more time to put towers everywhere, thus giving better coverage. However, you still can't do data and voice at the same time.

What are you talking about? GSM dates back to the mid 1980s and the first spec was published in 1991. The first mobile phone CDMA standard didn't come into play until 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS-95

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#113

Post by devy »

Obviously the author of this blog post (a Russian Designer) is an outsider of telecom industry. Neither would I believe s/he knows anything about a standard called "GSM", let alone the part where how GSM handsets id/authenticate with the network and the purpose of SIM card is. The proof of my assertion? Check out the sketch on the page, there is a ghost mobile carrier indicator "ABC 3G" there for all three screens.

Piece of advice: before you attack on technologies, make sure you understand it first, the history and the reason why they exists. Otherwise, you are going to be a public joke on HN.

I recommend him/her to read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscriber_Identity_Module

A little

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#114

Post by devy »

josteink wrote: post #68

This guy so doesn't get it. It's almost as if he is trolling. SIM cards (as implemented everywhere in the world except the US) is made to allow exactly the portability which he seeks. I fail to see why it is even linked here. Edit: Also why is he illustrating this with an iPhone ? Is it for lulz that he in the name of advocating openness links to the closest closed phone of all out there? I'm voting troll here.

"I'm voting troll here." - Me too. Sorry for asking a noob quesiton, how do you vote troll on HN?

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#115

Post by jonknee »

latch wrote: post #56
bnegreve wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum ... like what ? It is quite critical, someone with your username/passwd would be able to call for several hours without you knowing it.

A lot of banks don't support two-form authentication. A lot of online merchants keep credit card information on file and allow for quick check-outs.

And they count on being able to use your phone to confirm identity. Someone could hack your bank and phone at the same time so when you get a call about the suspicious transaction, it really goes to the hacker who says "yep, that was me".

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#116

Post by Too »

Spearchucker wrote: post #108
bigiain wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the opposite version of that quite useful too - swapping SIMs lets me change my phone hardware out independently of my carrier/phonenumber. I can (with a $2 microsim adaptor) switch between an iPhone, a Galaxy SII, and occasionally a tiny not-very-"smart"phone-but-perfectly-adequate-for-voice-and-text Huewei device. Phone calls and text messages just arrive at whatever device I've got my SIM in.

Agree with the general sentiment. The down side is something I'm waiting (hoping) for someone to fix. If I get a text message on one phone I can't get to it when I put the SIM into my other phone. It'd be awesome if there was an operator-netural, handset-neutral, multi-platform and secure cloud-based SMS sync service.

Actually most older phones (first generation gsm-phones) stored sms (and contact-list) directly on the sim-card.

Swapping the sim into another phone and you would have everything accessible. Some phones had their own memory also so you could choose where to store it or it would revert to SIM when phone memory was out.

Problem was that the memory on the SIM was incredibly slow and small and had no support for advanced contact list management(like multiple numbers per name), so now every phone has its own storage.

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#117

Post by Too »

john_flintstone wrote: post #78
lwhi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, a SIM card gives freedom from networks and the ability to change numbers easily and use pay as you go services when travelling. There's no way killing SIM cards would be a good thing.

And complete anonymity. Most people don't care about this, but some of us do, sometimes. You buy a pay as you go sim card for £10, pay with cash, and toss it a week or month later.

Can you still do this? I've tried in a few countries but had to register online with all my personal details before the card got activated.

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#118

Post by ajross »

jdietrich wrote: post #111

The SIM is an integral part of the GSM standard and provides a huge range of benefits. The point of their existence is to establish the identity of a subscriber independently of a handset , which has a lot of interesting, useful and important side-effects. A very large proportion of GSM subscribers use dual-sim handsets, to take advantage of the cheapest available tariffs. This is the norm in price-sensitive markets…

To be fair, most of what you're talking about can be achieved without the use of a physical device. The features are useful, the "SIM card" is not.

But your first example isn't like that: the SIM card, in essence, is a form of two-factor authentication. And it's really useful that way. Unfortunately it's a pity that it can only be used by the carriers...

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#119

Post by skystorm »

devy wrote: post #114
josteink wrote: post #68

This guy so doesn't get it. It's almost as if he is trolling. SIM cards (as implemented everywhere in the world except the US) is made to allow exactly the portability which he seeks. I fail to see why it is even linked here. Edit: Also why is he illustrating this with an iPhone ? Is it for lulz that he in the name of advocating openness links to the closest closed phone of all out there? I'm voting troll here.

"I'm voting troll here." - Me too. Sorry for asking a noob quesiton, how do you vote troll on HN?

I don't think you literally "vote" troll, it was meant more symbolically. :)

Re: SIM Cards Must Die

#120

Post by CraigRood »

kamjam wrote: post #87
gnu8 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans don't know that because their phone companies forbid that practice. AT&T doesn't even bother to move your SIM card from your old iPhone to your new iPhone when you upgrade, they just give you a new card.

Really, they give you a new sim on upgrade? I can understand this if you are upgrading TO an iPhone since you need a micro SIM, but rather pointless otherwise. I think I've had the same SIM card for about 6-7 years now!

Older sims dont have 3G capabilities either. (Not sure why)
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