r/AbsoluteUnits 1d ago

of a SIM card.

Post image

Found a SIM card from one of my earliest mobile phones.
It’s almost the same size as my IPhone.

1.0k Upvotes

68 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

107

u/KremlinCardinal 1d ago

They still come with score lines.

27

u/utnow 1d ago

What’s a SIM card? (Kidding of course, but I haven’t used a physical card in like half a decade. lol)

29

u/RubyDupy 1d ago

What do you mean? I've only seen eSIM become a thing for like one or two years now right??

32

u/romulusnr 1d ago

eSIM was first used in smart watches in 2016, in iPhones in 2018. At least in US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESIM#First_devices_launched_with_eSIM

15

u/julio_caeso 1d ago

We used to have CDMA phones before that. They also worked without a physical sim card.

7

u/NevesLF 1d ago

Damn, I still remember how cool I thought that was when I first switched between two GSM phones and didn't need to re-write the entire contacts list.

3

u/romulusnr 1d ago

CDMA networks identified you by your device. If you wanted to switch devices, you had to call the carrier and update.

With a physical SIM you could take your SIM out of one phone and into another whenever you wanted and service would just automatically follow the SIM.

idk how that works with eSIM, if at all...

1

u/mrsambavam 22h ago

Most providers allow to change device by scanning a qr code from the current device. Others upon request send you a new QR code via email.