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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 259 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
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Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:26:21 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Message-ID: <4AB495AD.1080107@thadlabs.com>
I'm really scratching my head with this problem and Google
searching doesn't provide anything useful other than the
obvious "clean the contacts" and "apply more pressure to the
contacts" (either with scraps of paper or black tape).
Either age and/or AT&T seems to have disabled and/or wiped out
the SIM card in my cell phone (Motorola RAZR V3) overnight. Is
it possible that AT&T could have remotely zapped the SIM due to
it booting up as Cingular and not AT&T and/or that I've had the
cell phone contract for so long that AT&T wants me to buy a new
phone? Yeah, paranoid thinking, but it IS AT&T :-)
The good news is the phone's display shows "Check SIM" and not
"Insert SIM" (meaning it recognizes the card's presence) and the
phone claims it can still initiate emergency calls (e.g., 911), so
the cell phone hardware itself appears to be in fine shape (and
still looks brand new even after almost 5 years).
I'll be visiting the local AT&T store(s) this weekend to "Check SIM"
in other phones. The symptom suggests it's only the SIM card that's
bad and a new one should be free/easy to get, so hopefully I'll be
back online sometime Saturday afternoon.
If the existing SIM card will operate in other cell phones (I won't
know until Saturday afternoon), then I'm again (doubly) puzzled, and
if I have to buy a new cell phone, that will require the remainder of
this weekend to feature and price shop for something that is just a
phone and not a gadget overloaded with features/junk I'll never use.
For what it's worth, the phone was working perfectly when I placed
it down on the same spot on my dresser that I have for nearly 5 years
now, and it wasn't until I awoke to an odd beep and saw "Check SIM".
Any advice, anecdotes and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Date: 19 Sep 2009 13:39:33 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Message-ID: <20090919133933.22472.qmail@simone.iecc.com>
SIM cards sometimes just fail.
If you take your phone into an AT&T store, they should give you
a new SIM at no charge. Before you leave, be sure the SIM and
phone work, and also be sure that they didn't also change your
service plan or its expiration date.
R's,
John
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:10:37 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Message-ID: <4AB5810D.9060803@thadlabs.com>
On 9/19/2009 8:59 AM, John Levine wrote:
> SIM cards sometimes just fail.
>
> If you take your phone into an AT&T store, they should give you
> a new SIM at no charge. Before you leave, be sure the SIM and
> phone work, and also be sure that they didn't also change your
> service plan or its expiration date.
Thank you for the excellent advice!
For the curious, the local AT&T Store had a queued service line,
and after I reached the front it took only seconds to receive a new
free SIM card and test call my phone. All info in the phone, even
the list of incoming calling numbers, was preserved. Amazing.
The service rep returned the original SIM card to me, but it's
probably not worth trying to open it and see what's in there given
it's hardly more than a thumbnail-sized sliver of cardboard.
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:29:44 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Message-ID: <pan.2009.09.19.23.29.43.129810@myrealbox.com>
On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:59:44 -0400, John Levine wrote:
> SIM cards sometimes just fail.
>
SIM cards are just like all other solid-state memory devices, they all
still have a finite amount of Write cycles before they fail.
The technology is steadily improving in this area, so something made today
has (as a generalisation) far more Write cycles in it than things made
just a few years ago.
There are Linux distros designed for solid-state drives that minimise the
write cycles that are quite acceptable for normal hard disks, but will
prematurely kill off solid-state storage.
SIM cards fail, USB stick drives fail, MP3/4 players fail - all because
they are based on an underlying technology that has a finite life when
used.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:32:19 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: What could/would cause a SIM card to belly-up?
Message-ID: <op.u0jan5y2o63xbg@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:33:26 -0400, Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
> I'm really scratching my head with this problem and Google
> searching doesn't provide anything useful other than the
> obvious "clean the contacts" and "apply more pressure to the
> contacts" (either with scraps of paper or black tape).
>
> Either age and/or AT&T seems to have disabled and/or wiped out
> the SIM card in my cell phone (Motorola RAZR V3) overnight. Is
> it possible that AT&T could have remotely zapped the SIM due to
> it booting up as Cingular and not AT&T and/or that I've had the
> cell phone contract for so long that AT&T wants me to buy a new
> phone? Yeah, paranoid thinking, but it IS AT&T :-)
>
> The good news is the phone's display shows "Check SIM" and not
> "Insert SIM" (meaning it recognizes the card's presence) and the
> phone claims it can still initiate emergency calls (e.g., 911), so
> the cell phone hardware itself appears to be in fine shape (and
> still looks brand new even after almost 5 years).
>
> I'll be visiting the local AT&T store(s) this weekend to "Check SIM"
> in other phones. The symptom suggests it's only the SIM card that's
> bad and a new one should be free/easy to get, so hopefully I'll be
> back online sometime Saturday afternoon.
>
> If the existing SIM card will operate in other cell phones (I won't
> know until Saturday afternoon), then I'm again (doubly) puzzled, and
> if I have to buy a new cell phone, that will require the remainder of
> this weekend to feature and price shop for something that is just a
> phone and not a gadget overloaded with features/junk I'll never use.
>
> For what it's worth, the phone was working perfectly when I placed
> it down on the same spot on my dresser that I have for nearly 5 years
> now, and it wasn't until I awoke to an odd beep and saw "Check SIM".
>
> Any advice, anecdotes and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Anecdote, Thad, w/ another carrier: as an unintended consequence
of "regular maintenance," a data-base entry for me and my SIM got
"reset" on my carrier's systems. A call to Customer Care got that
entry properly set again -- my IMEI and my phone number had gotten
unlinked one from the other, and until they were relinked I was
"dead in the water." Keyword/phrase for my carrier turned out to
be "HLR" -- "Home Location Registry" -- that's where the trouble lay.
For your carrier, neither that keyword/phrase nor the nature of the
problem I describe need be of any relevance, of course, i.e., YMMV :-) .
Hope you get it sorted out :-) . Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
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End of The Telecom digest (5 messages)
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