Traditionally, SIM cards were used for transferring data between devices. SIM cards in the past were used to store many different types of data, such as the following:
- User data
- Contacts
- SMS messages
- Dialed calls
- Network data
- Integrated Circuit Card Identifier (ICCID): Serial number of the SIM
- International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI): Identifier that ties the SIM to a specific user account
- MSISDN: Phone number assigned to the SIM
- Location Area Identity (LAI): Identifies the cell that a user is in
- Authentication Key (Ki): Used to authenticate the mobile network
- Various other network-specific information
With the rise in capacity of device storage, SD cards, and cloud backups, the necessity for storing data on a SIM card has decreased. As such, most modern smartphones typically do not store much, if any, user data on the SIM card. All network...
