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Posted by
100 posts

Thanks, Andrew; that was a very useful read, complete with some historical context and technical summary.

Somehow, I loved and hated this line equally and simultaneously:

... In an industry that can't abide spending a few millimeters of space on
a headphone jack, slotting a plastic chip into your device just to
provision you for service is unacceptable.

Posted by
5687 posts

Not all mobile carriers even used SIM cards until recently. Here in the US, Verizon used CDMA technology before LTE and did not use SIM cards at all until LTE. AT&T used to use a technology called TDMA which also didn't use SIM cards. Until LTE, only GSM providers used them.

Posted by
6227 posts

Verizon's use of CDMA was a big reason I've had such a hateful relationship with them over the years (that and their customer service). It definitely made travel to Europe with a cell phone more difficult in the past (and continues today).