Every cellphone owner in Zimbabwe has either an Econet, NetOne or Telecel SIM Card since these three are the prolific mobile network operators in the country. The acronym: SIM Card is so popular across all walks of life but does everyone really know what is means? And in case you are having poor network connectivity on your cellphone, then how do you solve it?
The abbreviation SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module. It is a smart card that stores data for GSM cellular telephone subscribers. Such data includes user identity, location and phone number, network authorization data, personal security keys, contact lists and stored text messages.
SIM Card security features include authentication and encryption to protect data and prevent eavesdropping of conversations. These smart data cards are designed to receive network signals from cellphone towers which are setup by your mobile network operator (MNO) such as Econet Wireless, NetOne or Telecel of you are in Zimbabwe.
A SIM card and can be switched easily from one phone set to another. The portability of data offers a number of benefits. For example, a user that buys a new phone can install the current SIM card to associate the new phone with the same number and user preferences as the old one.
In another common situation, if a phone’s battery runs out of power, the user can easily install the card to another subscriber’s phone to borrow it without running up that user’s minutes. Some vendors offer prepaid SIM cards that can provide travelers with local numbers, as long as their cell phones are not locked to a specific carrier.
A device called a SIM card reader can be used to upload data from a SIM card to a computer or other device. It is however recommended that you don’t frequently dismantle your SIM card from your handset since this can cause damage of data circuits.
