{"id":16275,"date":"2023-10-25T11:44:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T06:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=16275"},"modified":"2025-04-04T08:10:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T02:40:40","slug":"sim-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sim-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card\u00a0<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an\u00a0integrated circuit, or a microchip that identifies the subscriber on a given network.<\/li>\n<li>In order for a mobile phone to connect to any cellular network that follows\u00a0the Global System for Mobile Communications\u00a0(GSM) standard, a SIM card is mandatory.<\/li>\n<li>This relationship is established using a unique authentication key \u2013 a piece of data that a user needs to \u2018unlock\u2019 access to the network.<\/li>\n<li>Every SIM card stores this data and it is designed such that the user can\u2019t access it through their phone.<\/li>\n<li>Instead, signals sent by the phone into the\u00a0network are \u2018signed\u2019 by the key, and the network uses the signature to understand whether the phone\u2019s connection is legitimate.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>SIM cards also store information about\u00a0its own ID number (the integrated circuit card identifier),\u00a0the IMSI, the subscriber\u2019s\u00a0location area identity (i.e. their current location), a list of preferred networks (to whom the subscriber can connect when roaming), emergency numbers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How does a SIM card work?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>SIM cards are\u00a0designed according to the ISO\/IEC 7816 international standard maintained by the\u00a0International Organisation for Standardisation and\u00a0the International Electrotechnical Commission.<\/li>\n<li>It applies to electronic identification cards, including smart cards.<\/li>\n<li>In this standard, the card itself consists of the integrated circuit, which is glued to a\u00a0silicon substrate on the top side.<\/li>\n<li>On the other side of the substrate are\u00a0metal contacts, which form the gold-coloured side of the SIM card.<\/li>\n<li>Wires connect the integrated circuit from its bottom side to the metal contacts on the top side, and the contacts interface with the phone\u2019s data connectors.<\/li>\n<li>The metal contacts have a segmented appearance. Each segment is called a pin and\u00a0has a specific purpose.<\/li>\n<li>When a subscriber dials a recipient\u2019s number, the phone sends data via the network \u2013 signed by the key on the SIM card \u2013 to a telephone exchange.<\/li>\n<li>If the recipient is connected to the same exchange, the network establishes their identity and the call is routed to them.<\/li>\n<li>If the recipient is \u2018located\u2019 elsewhere, a computer connected to the network routes the call there according to the most optimum route.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is the International Electrotechnical Commission?<\/h3>\n<p>The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international organization that develops and publishes voluntary international standards for all electrical, electronic, and related technologies. It is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/how-sim-cards-work-explained\/article67453370.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>How do SIM cards work? | Explained<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card is an integrated circuit, or a microchip that identifies the subscriber on a given network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}