SIM Card Ever Go Bad?

[dimsdale]

Anyone ever have a SIM card go bad in a SGN?
If so, what were the symptoms?

THANKS!

 

[zkSharks]

Anyone ever have a SIM card go bad in a SGN?
If so, what were the symptoms?

THANKS!

It does happen occasionally. There are two typical causes; the first is physical damage to the card itself, while the second is a mix-up with your account causing a failure while provisioning the SIM card. Assuming you are on Verizon, the SIM card is responsible solely for authorizing LTE access, and so physical damage may simply result in a loss of LTE connectivity. It's unlikely to cause problems with 3G/voice connectivity. You may take a severe battery hit as your phone continually tries to connect to a network that it can't connect to, so switching off LTE in the meantime might be a good idea.

If the problem is on the network side, things are different. Your phone will likely connect to LTE, however it will fail the recurring automatic network authorizations Verizon has in place. This means that every few minutes, following an authorization failure, the network will kick you. The time between failed automatic authorizations seems to be vary between six and twenty minutes. Failed authorizations can also result in a loss of signal due the radios drawing an unusually large amount of power and briefly shutting off, even if the network doesn't kick you. When this happens, your phone will lose all network access (that means LTE/3G/1x), however it will immediately start to re-acquire its signal and you'll be able to connect without issue. These authorizations also often take place when initiating data usage or placing a call. You may fail these authorizations as well, and it's extremely frustrating when this happens. Dialing a number or opening the browser will leave you with no signal for up to thirty seconds.

Don't worry, there are no 'permanent' or 'long-term' consequences from failing these authorizations, especially if it's just a problem; be sure to contact Verizon to avoid any potential headaches though. They are meant to keep truly unauthorized devices from using the network. This will appear in your battery stats as a lot of short red lines on the 'Signal' bar below the graph, as well as a very heavy hit to the battery.

My sources are personal experience, brief involvement with CDMA and LTE networks, and a profound general interest in them. If I can help in any other way, let me know.

 

[dimsdale]

Thanks for the awesome reply! Very interesting and I'm sure helpful to many people on here.

I have one VZW SGN that throws me off the network ever 5 hours and one VZW SGN that throws me off the network every 30 seconds.

Today, VZW is sending me another SGN and a new SIM card.

We'll see if I can't get a working setup between 3 phones and 2 SIM cards!

 

[zkSharks]

Thanks for the awesome reply! Very interesting and I'm sure helpful to many people on here.

I have one VZW SGN that throws me off the network ever 5 hours and one VZW SGN that throws me off the network every 30 seconds.

Today, VZW is sending me another SGN and a new SIM card.

We'll see if I can't get a working setup between 3 phones and 2 SIM cards!

Good luck. If you have troubles activating the SIM and holding a signal, definitely go into your local Verizon store to have them do one for you in person. While they can't force a SIM to provision or diagnose high-level account conflicts (you'll have to call in to a Tier 3 tech for these "more advanced" issues), they will be able to watch and see if the SIM provisions correctly or not.