![\"simcards\"](\"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/simcards.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A majority of phones and tablets that access the Internet use a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card. Its purpose is to provide an ID for your mobile device, one that’s used by a cellular provider to give the device service, a signal, and basically sort your phone or tablet out from the zillions of other phones or tablets.<\/p>\n
Oh, and it’s used to help with billing. So there’s that.<\/p>\n
My question is this: Does the mobile device really need a SIM card?
\n
\nOf course not!<\/p>\n
Since Ethernet took over computer networking a few decades ago, all network devices sport unique numbers. The NIC (Network Information Card) has a MAC address, where MAC doesn’t stand for anything to do with McDonalds. No it’s Media Access Control, and it’s a unique ID that all NICs have.<\/p>\n
If your laptop has a Wi-Fi and wired Internet connection, then it has two unique MAC addresses. Your phone has a unique MAC address, so does the tablet. And, according to laws enforced by large reptiles that hide under the north pole, no two MAC addresses are alike.<\/p>\n
So why don’t the phone companies and cellular providers use the phone’s MAC address, or something similar, instead of a SIM? It makes sense.<\/p>\n
For most cellular users, the SIM isn’t even a thought. But when you buy a loose or “unlocked” phone, you need to obtain a SIM card to get service from a cellular provider. I’ve done this routine a number of times.<\/p>\n
First, you obtain an unlocked phone from some source. Amazon has them. The Galaxy Note 4 I purchased was unlocked, and yes, I paid full price for the device. They aren’t cheap!<\/p>\n
Next, you sign up for cellular service, which is usually a month-to-month deal. Because the phone is unlocked, you can choose the cellular provider. You can go with a reseller and save a ton of money. My current unlocked phone costs me only $30\/month for unlimited voice and chat plus about 500MB of data, which is plenty for that phone.<\/p>\n
Finally, you obtain a SIM card that’s compatible with the provider’s service — and your phone. That requires a modicum of research before you begin the process, but most of the resellers document everything on their website.<\/p>\n
Install the SIM card. Visit the web page. Boom! You have service and save a ton of money. That process would be made a heckofalot easier if you didn’t need to purchase and install the SIM card. In fact, I don’t see why the major phone manufacturers and cellular providers don’t get together now and just make it happen.<\/p>\n
Or not happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mobile devices that don’t require a SIM card<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-7600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-android"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7609,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions\/7609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}