What is a sim card

[ford7379trucks]

I thought a sim card was a card you put in a non verizon phone. (my uncle had a AT&T phone that he had a sim card and he could take it out of his phone and put it in any phone and it automatically worked on his line.) I have been with verizon sence they started and I have never had a sim card. There are SD cards but they have nothing to do with activating your phone. So why are people talking about sim cards to use there verizon phone on verzons network. I always had to call or go on line to activate any phone I like on my line. when you get a new phone from verizon all you do is dial *228 and option 1.

 

[syndicate0017]

Unless you have a 4G phone or you have a global capable phone, you wouldn't use a SIM card. If you use a 3G phone then yes, the typical *228 would activate the phone.

 

[dezymond]

The reason Verizon's 3g phones don't use a SIM card is because they're on the CDMA network which doesn't require it. GSM (AT&T) requires it which is why they use a SIM card and which is also why their phones are global capable. Verizon 4g (LTE) uses a SIM card and does not need to be updated by dialing *228, it does it automatically everytime you boot up the phone. I'm not sure if activating a 4g phone is different as I had it done in store, but I'm sure you can do it over the phone as well.

Also take a look at this: Answers to FAQs

 

[ford7379trucks]

ok thanks. i get my 1st 4g phone (razr maxx) tomorrow. is the sim card a sd card or a completly differant type of card? Will i beable to put the sim card in any 4g phone?

 

[huskur]

ok thanks. i get my 1st 4g phone (razr maxx) tomorrow. is the sim card a sd card or a completly differant type of card? Will i beable to put the sim card in any 4g phone?

The SIM card for the Maxx is a Micro SIM. It will only work in micro sim devices such as the droid 4. Thunderbolt and Bionic take standard SIMs so it will not work with them. But yes, any device on verizon that uses a micro sim is interchangable.

 

[syndicate0017]

A SIM card and SD card are completely different. The SIM is for network authentication, the SD is for storage of files, etc. I believe the Maxx uses a micro-sim so you would be able to put it into any Verizon 4G phone that uses a micro-sim.

 

[huskur]

true meaning of SIM

Subscriber identity module - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia