In this age of information that we live in today, there are different elements that come into play to essentially allow you to access a particular network that in turn is going to provide you with the means with which to be able to communicate with other people. That’s the basic concept behind wifi or in the old days why you would have to connect your computer may be directly to a telephone line. There needs to be a way for your device to be able to connect to that network. That’s exactly what SIM cards serve as. A way to connect to a network. How does SIM card works, what you need to know?
How does SIM card works? Well, a lot like an ID card. Think about how you have to show your ID to be able to have access to a club or you have to show a ticket to be able to get on an airplane. So your SIM card contains the information that is able to link your device to the network of a wireless service provider. That’s why each service provider is essentially going to emit their own SIM cards. When you switch service providers even if they can allow you to keep your same phone number they are going to need to provide you with a SIM card that can grant you access to their own network.
Now that we have covered the basic duty that a SIM card has and fulfills, we want to cover some of the myths that revolve around SIM cards. Some of these myths are keeping people from effectively buying a foreign SIM card on their trip abroad and potentially saving money. Also, we want to go over some of the do’s and don’ts. You probably don’t want to insert any type of SIM card into your device. If you do you could be in some trouble.
Do I Need A SIM Card For My Phone To Work?
In the past, this would actually be a much easier question to answer! If you don’t have a SIM card then there is usually no way that you could potentially gain access to a particular wireless network. Therefore, without a SIM card, you cannot make direct calls from your phone to another phone line. These days, the difference is that without a SIM card you could potentially still get access to a wifi network. Certainly in the past before wifi, if you would have asked how do SIM cards work? We could say that they were the heart, soul, and brain of your device. These days they just control your access to a wireless network provider. Without a SIM card, you can’t connect to your T-Mobile, AT&T, Vodafone, or whatever network you want to access.
As wifi became a thing though, this opened up a whole new avenue of opportunities particularly for travelers, which of course, are our main concern on the site. Even without a SIM card or active access to a wireless network provider or cell phone company, however, you want to call it you could have internet access. This means that you could do things like checking your email, and surf the web, and even use some apps without the need for a SIM card.
What Type of Information Is Stored On A SIM Card?
This is another aspect that has changed entirely. In some of the more primitive phones, the SIM card would store all of the information that you could store on the phone. These days the SIM card is again more just a gateway and an ID card that is going to grant you access to a network. That doesn’t mean that you can’t “store” things on your SIM card. For example, phone contacts can still be stored on a particular SIM card. When you save a contact on your phone in most cases you can change where you want the contact to be stored. You may have default settings that will store that information in a cloud service these days.
Other than contact information for other people that you can store on there, of course, the SIM card stores your own phone. In many ways, though SIM cards these days are just a transmitter. As the link essentially from the phone company to your device that’s how the phone company will monitor things like your data usage or the minutes that you spend on the phone. That data is of course going to be reflected in your bill at the end of the month.
Is Removing My SIM Card Bad?
Since the way that SIM cards work is mostly as a transmitter as we’ve explained essentially if you remove your existing SIM card, you are effectively deactivating the link between your phone and the company that provides your service. It’s not that this is bad, but for example, if you bought the phone from that service provider you may not be able to insert a new SIM card from another company until you effectively unlock the phone. Let’s say that you remove the SIM card because you don’t want to run the risk of getting hit with roaming fees while you are abroad. You should have no problems there as long as you continue to pay your bill at the end of the month. The same thing goes for prepaid plans.
What can happen if you remove the SIM card on a prepaid plan or pay as you go plan and you don’t pay for more data or minutes the SIM card can effectively be deactivated after a couple of months. If you keep paying your bills you should be able to reuse the SIM card when you get back on home soil without any type of trouble. Meanwhile, while you are abroad you can potentially still use your phone through a wifi network and not have to worry about getting hit with roaming fees. So basically it’s not something bad, but you could be facing some consequences if you don’t do things right.
How Does Sim Card Works In Other Countries
If you keep your regular SIM card active in another country you may or may not have any type of service. It depends on who your carrier is or where you travel. You can activate an International Day pass that most of the important American companies offer these days. With the day pass, you’ll be asked to pay an extra daily fee, usually around 10 dollars. To be able to use your regular plan abroad. This can be a good idea because you’ll have access to phone calls and data. Yet, don’t count on coverage being all that reliable even in countries that your company says they’ll have you covered in. Getting bad coverage from your local company when you are abroad is actually also a testament to how sim cards work.
Your local SIM card has to get access to a foreign network that has to have some type of connection to your phone company. Think of it as a three-way call. Your device needs to be connected to both the networks in America who then connect you to the local network of wherever you are in the world. That’s why service from your regular company while you are outside of your home country is so expensive. Even if the connection speed has certainly been improved over the years there are just more players in the transaction and each company needs to be paid.
Local SIM Cards As An Option For Travel
If you don’t want to deal with the 3-way connection method you can just connect directly to a local network through a local SIM card. You need to get the card to be able to be granted access to the local network as we’ve talked about. Coverage through local SIM cards is usually going to be much better and much cheaper than what you can get from your regular network when you are on a trip. The thing is, unless you have a dual SIM phone you are going to have to remove your regular SIM card and put in the new one. That means that when you have the local SIM card in you won’t be getting calls and texts on your everyday number.
The price difference though of keeping your regular number on your everyday plan versus inserting a local SIM card can be worth it. Yes, you won’t be getting the calls and texts on your regular phone number, but you’ll have data calls and texts that will cost you sometimes even 5 times less or more. For a week abroad on the international day pass of your regular phone company, you could be paying up to 70 dollars. For 70 dollars you could get unlimited data, calls, and texts in most parts of the world for a month! In some areas of the world, coverage is even cheaper than that. We talk about this a lot on the site, here’s another article about those options.
Is My SIM Card Transmitting Personal Information To The Phone Company?
Since people are really worried about privacy these days anything that can sound like your calls are being listened to can sound scary. Now that you know the answer to how does SIM card works, that can be scary. The true answer to this question is kind of yes and no. In essence, no matter who your service provider is you are using their network to call, text, and essentially send anything that you need to send from your phone to another device.
Could this mean that someone at the phone company could potentially read your texts and listen in on your calls? It’s not likely unless there is a government warrant that allows them to do so. In that case, yes your service provider would actually be legally obligated to sell you out. This can sound really scary, but sending information through a public wifi network could certainly be 10 times worse.
Is It Safe To Buy A Local SIM Card In Another Country?
For the most part, it should be safe to buy another SIM card for your phone in another country. As with anything that you buy in what we could call “unknown” territory it’s a good idea to double-check where you buy things and who you buy them from. In Europe for example, you could get a SIM card from Vodafone which is the largest service provider in the continent and you’d be perfectly safe. If you are really paranoid, buy from official stores. If you are visiting South America, Mexico, or other places you could even buy a SIM card from AT&T if you are not into trusting foreign companies.
If you are thinking that you have very sensitive data on your phone and you want to take no risks at all, then get a burner phone. Buy another device that is completely clean and has none of your data on it. Then go abroad and buy a local SIM card for it and you can get coverage without having to remove your regular SIM card from your everyday device. Some people may not see the need to go through the extra trouble. We do understand though that cyber safety is something that many people are concerned about. When traveling abroad the best way to keep the data on your regular phone safe is through a burner phone.
Making A SIM Switch With An eSIM Phone
More and more companies are ditching the regular plastic SIM cards that we’ve known for years and going with an eSIM. This is due to the fact that SIM cards are not being used to hold data as they once were. It goes back to what we were mentioning that they have become more transistors than a way to hold data. Can you make a SIM switch with an eSIM phone? This process can be done, but what you have to do will depend on why you want to switch your SIM card. If you want to do this for international travel as we were discussing you can just turn off the data emission from your regular eSIM. Most eSIM phones still carry regular SIM card ports.
What you would have to do is go to your setting and switch off the data emissions from your regular eSIM. All that you have to do is then insert the other SIM in the regular SIM port that your phone most likely has. This is a great way to go about things. Since you won’t have to physically remove a SIM card and not forget where you put it while you’re on the trip. Certain phone companies are going to start offering eSIM prepaid packages. For these cases, everything indicates that the process is going to have to be done either through an app or physically getting a QR code at the store. By all accounts though switching service providers and the local SIM method is bound to become easier to access through eSIM technology.
How Does SIM Card Works: Conclusion
At the end of the day if you want access to a mobile network you have to use a SIM card. When you really get into the nuts and bolts of how does SIM card works it can sound a bit scary. Particularly if you are worried about certain texts or conversations being leaked. There are different ways to communicate, but most of the world like it or not goes through SIM cards. In the next couple of years, we’re going to start seeing more and eSIM phones. The only tangible difference is that these phones don’t have physical cards anymore.
SIM cards work as a way to get you access to a network. Essentially all of the communications that you make through your device are going to either go through that network or a wifi connection. If you are looking for cheaper ways to get coverage or get the most out of your plan it is a good idea to mix and match your wifi and SIM card network usage. For the most part, the use of SIM cards is perfectly safe; it’s not something that you should be having to worry about. If you are a bit worried we would say choose your service provider wisely and above all else make sure that you buy from certified stores.