Sim card life expectancy

Krieg

It occurred to me today that I have had the same sim card for over 7 seven years now and looking at it, I wonder how long it has left. Granted its covered up 99.9% of the time, but im guessing that usage over time must have some kind of impact

So, anyone know what the general life expectancy is?

Bob the Builder

Had an english customer into me the last day with a ten year old phone (1999), a sim card from the week before his first-born in 1996 (which he cud have been lying, but he sounded pretty truthful) and a price plan, which i informed him the last day was being charged at 1998 rates. He since called me from the UK and told me he updated his price plan to save him £92 per month.

He said it was the cheapest holiday to Ireland he's ever had.
Goes to show, the equipment will all last, but then again, build quality in 2001 was much better than now in a lot of respects, but then again, on top that, you have to consider that there's no moving parts in a sim, it has little exposure to the elements, and has no electrical parts.

strecker

Had the same sim in the same old Ericsson phone for 7 years! Now, 3 years on I still charge the phone to make sure it's alright: no probs! (btw: it's the original battery as well!!!)!

Ah-Watch

I dont know what it is but I've noticed alot of customers on the vodafone network only-their sim cards just stop reading after a couple of years and whack-all the contacts aren't retrievable, maybe it was a bad batch for a while a few years back and they're all going now or something but I have someone in every day(I mainly only work Saturdays) with "It keeps saying insert sim!" It doesn't really happen with 02/Meteor thats why I say a bad batch on vodafone...


Moral of the story-back up your numbers regularly.

towel401

i got a sim from '99 thats still working. i like the way it still says 'eircell' on the phone

ttm

Another SIM from 99 - obviously a good year. Still works fine and has been in 100's of phones as while its my main SIM card I tend used to use it, becasue I know its works and I always have it on me, to test phones and modems.

drunkmonkey

Esat Digifone sims are still going strong, must have seen about 5 of them in the last week...

Mimikyu

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drunkmonkey

anyone got one of those old full size card sim cards, I think the sim was sideways in it, i've an old digifone i'd love to get on the air again.....the sim sits in the surround the normal sims come in these days....

Sarn

I've had my Vodafone sim fail on me and it wasn't that old. No idea why, thankfully I only lost a few numbers. Definitely a good idea to back them up from time to time.

antodeco

drunkmonkey wrote: »

anyone got one of those old full size card sim cards, I think the sim was sideways in it, i've an old digifone i'd love to get on the air again.....the sim sits in the surround the normal sims come in these days....

AFAIK they wont work anymore. They're not powerful enough. There are a few differemt sim volts which become more powerful dependant on the network. Hence why O2 needed specific 3G sims. Higher power consumption running at 2100mhz (as oppose to the old 'large sim cards that will generally only run at 800mhz).

towel401

antodeco wrote: »

AFAIK they wont work anymore. They're not powerful enough. There are a few differemt sim volts which become more powerful dependant on the network. Hence why O2 needed specific 3G sims. Higher power consumption running at 2100mhz (as oppose to the old 'large sim cards that will generally only run at 800mhz).

i cut one of those out to fit in an ordinary sim slot and it worked. the sim itself doesnt run at 2100mhz only the carrier signal from the phone

antodeco

towel401 wrote: »

i cut one of those out to fit in an ordinary sim slot and it worked. the sim itself doesnt run at 2100mhz only the carrier signal from the phone

Correct, but the older sims are a lower voltage (i want to say 8k, but cant remember). The IMSI range (dependant on the setup of the core network) shouldnt allow certain sims to access various network services ie: wap, mms, long txts.

Cat5

The phones that used the full sixe card .. were lucky if they were even sms compatable..When sms started a lot of the early phones could only read an sms and not send... and forget about wap it wasnt even invented at the time.. the sim should work but only for phone calls

guil

didnt the motorola startak take a full size sim

wheresthebeef

it most certainly did. i remember badly wanting a startac, and looking back, they are fierce ugly phones.