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ARM wants mobile or IoT devices to include a tiny integrated SIM card:
Every millimeter of space matters when you're trying to build increasingly complex electronics into increasingly tiny packages, and the relatively spacious SIM card has long been an area of frustration for hardware manufacturers. Now, the chip design company ARM may have an answer: an integrated component called an iSIM that's built into the same chip as the processor.
ARM says the iSIM will take up a "fraction of a millimeter squared," whereas the current SIM standard — Nano SIMs — are about 12.3 x 8.8mm in size, not including the hardware usually needed to house them. Not only will that save space, but ARM says it'll more importantly save on costs, too: instead of paying "tens of cents" per card, manufacturers will be paying single-digital cents.
Also at CNET, Tom's Hardware, and Wccftech.
Related: Infineon Demos a 1.65 mm^2 eSIM Chip
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 22 2018, @12:42PM (19 children)
I mean, who wouldn't want to be rid of the convenience of being able to swap one SIM card out for another? Much simpler to just swap out the entire piece of hardware.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:03PM (3 children)
Over CPUID in Intel chips in the 90s. Or TPM modules in the '00s...
But no complaints at all since Cell Phones came out with 2-5 serial numbers each, and all of a sudden every component of your desktop/laptop has a serial number on it that is being sent to Microsoft, Ubuntu, Steam, or your software company, whether freeware or paid proprietary... and nobody is raising an uproar anymore?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:09PM
Millennials.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:45PM (1 child)
Cell phones have to be identifiable, at least by the phone company. Making that info open to anyone else is a less stellar idea but having a functioning network without unique identifiers isn't really viable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @04:25PM
No. The only thing the phone company needs to identify is your SIM card. Change the SIM card, and as far as the phone company is concerned, it should be a new phone. Put the SIM card into a new phone, and as far as the phone company is concerned, it should be the same phone as before.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by ledow on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:25PM (9 children)
All you've done is move up one layer, however.
Your phone number is tied to your SIM which is accessed from a device with an IMEI number.
The IMEI is fixed to the device.
The SIM is now going to start being fixed to the device too.
But the phone number now needs to be MORE easily portable.
And which, out of all of those, do you really care about as an ordinary user? The phone number.
This is going to mean that you'll be able to port numbers even quicker and move them from handset to handset from, say, a web interface on your telephony carrier.
"Hey, Vodafone, please move my phone number to this iSIM number... done."
This is one of the reasons that WhatsApp is so successful... there are literally no usernames or passwords to remember, or contacts to bring over. It just runs from your phone number, which is all you need to know (and verify the ownership of) in order to work it and bring everything back.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:29PM (2 children)
Not forgetting... now your phone can hold an unlimited number of SIM cards.
You can have 20 numbers on one phone.
You can literally add a SIM for every country, network or package deal that you want.
When 4G fails on one of them, it'll just pick up from any other network that offers 4G near you with an appropriate SIM.
As it is, mainstream phones miss out on the "dual-SIM" market which is popular with anyone who travels. With an iSIM, it'll be even easier.
I think the advantages far outweigh the cost of the rare "Oh, my phone is destroyed, I'll have to move my number to another handset" convenience, which can be solved with a web portal.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @05:10PM (1 child)
"Not forgetting... now your phone can hold an unlimited number of SIM cards."
Source required. Who said that feature will be made possible?
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:17PM
I'm sure it will be made possible, but whether it's actually available to customers is another matter.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:46PM (3 children)
That's not more portable, that's less. Right now it takes me a few seconds and zero calls to a support line.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday February 22 2018, @05:03PM (2 children)
To move your number from one handset to another, yes. But what does it take to move your phone number to a different carrier?
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:19PM
In the UK, a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC), which you request from your current carrier, and submit to your new carrier. The carriers then sort it out in the background within a day or so.
I understand that some other countries have their own systems, which get it done in minutes.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 23 2018, @01:30AM
Which is entirely non-useful when you're talking IoT gear.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @05:24PM
Are you serious? Do you really think the carriers are going to make a simple web interface to make changes like this?
No, not in the US. I have enough experience with Verizon Wireless and AT&T that I can pretty much guarantee that if/once this becomes available it will only be changeable over the phone with Customer Service, and only after getting transferred a minimum of three times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @10:03AM
Where do you live that a web interface can be quicker than the two seconds it takes to swap out a sim card?
I suspect you won't be able to use the web interface from the same phone (in the case of moving the sim card from a broken phone, that would be the one currently without a sim card), so you'll have to include:
Find a computer. Boot it up. Start the web browser. Go to the porting web site. Authenticate yourself. Provide proof that you own the phone. Wait for the move to actually be done.
In less than the two seconds that it takes to move a sim card.
(Score: 3, Touché) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:39PM
I came into this thread to congratulate ARM for turning modern GSM into last decade's CDMA, but I see you've already applied the appropriate amount of snark.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday February 22 2018, @02:17PM (3 children)
SIMs exist from back in the days of car phones. The idea was that you'd be buy a credit-card sized thing with a SIM on it and, when you rented a car with a carphone, be able to insert the card and have it work with your account. It's several decades since this model existed, yet we still use physical SIM chips to port phone numbers between phones. This is not really needed and there's a standard, eSIM, for getting rid of it. eSIM lets you have a programmable SIM in the device, so that you can switch between providers with a simple software update. Apple uses this as the 'Apple SIM' in their iOS devices, in addition to the removable SIM, so that you can easily get a local short-term contract when travelling - it's much easier to just go to the SIM app and select from a variety of providers than it is to get a physical SIM from a vending machine at an airport and hope that it's a good deal and not something designed to fleece tourists, or to wait until you can get to a mobile phone shop.
The difference with the iSIM is that it's a tiny bit of circuitry embedded on a small SoC, rather than a separate chip.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:01PM (2 children)
get a physical SIM from a vending machine at an airport
You get them from hawkers for a dollar in most third world countries, and you don't give him the dollar till it works. In Europe, the network gives you one free if you buy EUR10 credit. In fact, they shove them into your hands whether you want them or not, like AOL CDs, in a lot of places.
I would not even think about buying a phone if I could not switch SIMs. WHat if I want to lend the phone to one of my kids?
What if I want to put in the SIM I use to register for web sites that I KNOW will spam me?
Sometimes I want to put the SIM in my old Nokia cos I don't want a huge smart phone in my clothing.
Sometimes I want to put someone else's SIM in my phone to see if the phone or the SIM is faulty.
Non-removable SIMs are in the same league as non-removable batteries: A wonderful tool for shafting the customer.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @10:09AM
Not quite. Your phone number is not tied to the battery, and your new phone wants a different voltage anyway, so you can't move your old battery over.
Most people don't care about replacing the battery. They want an excuse to buy the new phone anyway. But most people will at some point be in the situation of wanting to move their phone number to a different phone for one reason or another.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday February 26 2018, @09:12AM
sudo mod me up