this little piece of plastic plays a
very critical role in your mobile
internet setup
so today we're going to be talking all
about sim cards
hi there i'm sheree with the mobile
internet resource center
and this little piece of plastic is
otherwise known as a sim card
sim stands for subscriber identity
module
and basically the information that is
contained on this little card
is everything with your cellular data
plan it contains
the phone number that is on your device
that people can use to call you and send
text messages to
it has all the information about the
data plan
and the terms and service of your phone
plan with your carrier
it is what basically identifies your
device a
smart phone or potentially a hotspot
or a router to the carrier and
what features you get with the plan that
you have subscribed to
now there's a lot to know about these
little cards and how critical they are
to our setups
so we're going to be going in depth on
this we're going to be talking about how
to move these between devices
how to size them and all the different
formats that they come in
but basically every cellular device on
the market today
needs a sim card to be able to function
to be able to place phone calls to be
able to get online to the internet
now sim cards can rather be inserted
into devices
some of them are electronically embedded
inside the devices
and some devices like modern smartphones
and some routers
can actually allow you to have more than
one
sim card inserted at a time so you have
access to multiple data plans
so we're going to be diving in and chris
is up next to tell you more
what i'm holding up here is known as a
nano sim
nano because well sims actually come in
multiple sizes
and they've changed over time so the
nano sim is probably the most common and
now
but back when sim cards first came out
they were actually the size of a credit
card so this was considered
the full size sim then well
you've probably never seen one of these
these haven't been used in phones in
ages
full size sim cards like this what's
more common
is the mini sim this size and then
came the micro sim this size
see pretty similar and then
the nano even tinier because well as
phones advanced
they wanted more space for things like
batteries and other electronics and they
didn't want to waste all that space for
sim cards
but one of the really interesting things
and important things is
the sims are actually all electrically
identical
the part that matters has always been
the size of the nano sim the rest of it
around it was just
plastic you know to basically make it
easier to insert and remove
and that opens the door for cutting sims
down to size
if you want to try and take a sim card
that is one size and
chop it down to be a smaller size that's
actually possible
and you're not destroying the sim it
will still work because
all the important electronics are in the
nano sim size piece right here
so there are tools that are sim cutters
like this that can cut down a mini or a
micro sim
and turn it into a nano sim if you're
trying to go in the reverse direction
then you've got sim card adapters that
will take a
nano sim or micro sim and let you put it
into a mini sim
or a micro sim slot
so these names get kind of confusing but
you can go up and down
in size as needed it's easier to go up
with adapters than to
chop things but it is possible to go in
both directions
to adapt sims to be to be able to move
them
between devices now all these different
devices have different places where the
sim cards can go
so let's show you some of the different
ways that sim cards can be
installed and where they are fit into
devices
now most phones have a sim slot
externally
it's usually a little dot someplace
where you can put a sim eject tool or a
paper clip or a safe
little pin and press
and eject and
you have access to lose your sim card
and have it drop out of the tray
um and that's how sim cards work in
phones
hot spots and stuff often have the sim
cards hidden
underneath the battery and the ways that
they go in and out
often vary so here's a verizon
8800 and the sim card is in a little
tray
under the battery here and
this is a nano sim you have to look for
the little tab
to i put it in the right orientation
contact side down
and you just slide it in
until there until it fits into place
and then to get it out you just slide it
out and reverse and sometimes it's
helpful
to either use a sim eject tool or
something just to gently
help slide something out if your
fingernails aren't able to do the job
other types of hot spots have different
slots on the bottom usually still hidden
under the battery here is a netgear
nighthawk
the slot here is again down here and you
could slide
in and out this one takes um micro sim
so if you have a nano sim like we have
here you need to
use an adapter to put it into this slot
and again
always line up the devices there the sim
card where the little notch is cut out
of the corner to make sure you're
putting it in
the right way and then just line it up
and never force it because you don't
want to bend the tip the
pins that are making the contact on the
sim
and never try to put a sim in the wrong
size slot so if you were to slide in
a nano sim here where it's expecting a
micro sim you can potentially get it
stuck or bend the pins this really
matters for some of the other ones where
it can get lost
deep inside a device and you might have
to have a
technician do surgery to extract it so
always
have the right adapters set up and use
them
other types of devices like here's a
netgear orbee router
make it really easy to get to the sim
slot it's right externally it's spring
loaded
you just line up the little tab push it
in
and it kind of clicks in place and to
eject it you push it again
and the spring pops it out super easy
when it's uh
exposed and external like that
now we get to some routers that have sim
cards in all sorts of different
places this pep wave
max br1 has actually two sim slots
but only a single modem so the inside
the software interface you can pick
which sim is active but only one is
active at a time it's really handy for
quickly switching between say att and
verizon for example
now most routers take the full size of
the
mini sim the bigger size so you would
use an adapter
put the sim into the adapter
because there's a micro sim going into a
mini sim adapter
and orient it into the slot
and push it in and you'll see
this was kind of tough to slide in place
because
the this particular adapter kind of
makes things thick that's why i keep
some needle-nose pliers on hand because
even though it's spring-loaded sometimes
it's
gets a little stuck and you've got to
extract them and that be a case
for using a different adapter that
doesn't add any extra width
so um that adapter
got a little extra but back plastic to
it not so good here
an adapter like this one will probably
slide in and out
easier another tip for things like this
don't put an adapter in to test it
without a sim card being in the adapter
or again
that could get stuck and bend the pins
got another router here
this is a peplink um balance 20x
on the back it's got the same sort of uh
dual sim
slot for the expansion modem here and
again but this is a dual modem device so
it's got a whole other modem with
other sim slots and those
are hidden down on the bottom and these
are actually kind of a really tricky sim
slot to put things in and out of
it's got a little metal tab that slides
and then you've got to lift it up
and balance that there and then take
again a mini sim of the bigger size
slide it into this little tray push the
tray down
and then slide the little metal tab over
and it locks it into place
so again just take your time figure it
out every device might have a different
way that the sim cards go in place
and some devices actually have to take
them apart because the sim card is
hidden away and not accessible outside
unless you
unscrew them and stuff so things like
the wi-fi ranger converge router on the
roof
you have to unscrew it to get at the
hidden sim slot inside but
every cellular device has a sim slot
except if they're using esim
now esim is a technology called embedded
sim that's basically replacing
little plastic with software and some
devices like the new iphones can use
esim
and a regular sim to have two sims
active
the esim you install either via an app
or scanning a qr code with your phone
and other devices that support esim will
have similar ways of
installing this virtual soft sim works
the same way internally it's actually
running on a chip just like this but it
is
permanently embedded and you could swap
between multiple e-sims so you can
actually have
several e-sims installed for different
carriers and just pick between them
kind of handy it's the kind of the way
things are going in the future because
then
device manufacturers don't have to put
slots and they don't have to
waste all that space and it's easier to
waterproof things if you don't have
external
jacks so now the big question is why
would you even want to move the sim card
to a different device
and there's a lot of reasons why the
first is maybe you want to
upgrade your device or switch to a
different phone maybe one you purchase
independently from a friend or online
from a third party
this allows you just to move the sim
card from one phone
to another without having to involve
your carrier
it's really that simple just move the
sim card over
or perhaps maybe normally in your rv or
boat
you run off of a mobile router that has
to be plugged in it doesn't have battery
power
but maybe you're going off on a hike or
you're leaving for the day
and you want to be able to take your
data plan with you and you want to move
it to a mobile hotspot device that can
run off of battery and is far more
portable
that allows you to move your data plan
from the router to the hotspot device
you might also have going out for a
whitewater rafting adventure and you
want to take a cheaper or more rugged
phone with you instead of your expensive
flagship phone
there's lots of reasons why you might
want to move your plan around
but you do need to check in with your
carrier and your
plan to make sure that you are
authorized to move
that sim card to a different device some
carriers
won't let you move your sim card they
might be only
designated for certain type of devices
like smartphone plans
typically can't be used in a data only
device
unless the carrier specifically
authorizes that use also
they might have a specific type of
device
that that plan is designed for like a
connected car plan can only work on
connected car
devices so if you move the sim card the
plan might not
work or be legit or within terms of
service
so be sure to check in with your carrier
on that some of them
might even lock it to the specific imei
number that's the serial number
of the device and you actually have to
contact the carrier if you want to move
that sim card to a different device so
they can update your
account so be sure to check in on the
terms and conditions of your plan
and with your carrier because sim
swapping sometimes you just can't do it
between devices but if you have a
plan that you can it really is as simple
as just moving the sim card from one
device to another
and adapting if you need to so how do
you get these little plastic things
a lot of the carriers when you subscribe
to a new plan they're
either going to send you one or if
they're going to activate it right in
the store when you sign up for the plan
some devices if you buy a mobile hotspot
or smartphone
it's going to come with a sim card a
blank one already installed and all you
have to do is activate the plan with the
carrier
but keep in mind these sim cards are
carrier specific
so a verizon card can only work with a
verizon plan if you're going with a
prepaid or a mvno or reseller
they may have specific cards like cricut
you need to get a cricut sim card to
work with a cricut device
and some carriers will allow you to
reuse a sim card so if you have like a
leftover verizon card from an older plan
or device
you can just reactivate it sometimes
other carriers like 18t
they want you to have a new sim card for
each plan that you activate
so the sim card is usually provided with
your plan
but sometimes that might not be
practical so you can go to stores that
sell prepaid plans like
best buy or target and buy a blank sim
card you're going to
pay maybe 10 or you can go to the
carrier's
website and just have them ship you a
blank sim card
you can keep that on hand so that you
can activate a plan when you need it on
your device
so there's always to provide and get
those sim cards do you know
the size that you need some carriers are
getting really smart and they actually
have a punch out card that has all three
sizes available
on one card with the sim card so you
just pick the size for your device
that makes it super handy so you're not
having to pre-guess but
keep those things in mind when you're
selecting your sim cards
when you're moving them between devices
and hopefully this helps save
you some frustration down the road these
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