How does a SIM card store data such as voicemails, contacts, etc.? How much data can a SIM card hold? If, then, it connects to the internet, how so?
In: Technology
SIM cards don’t hold voice mail.
They have a small amount of memory for holding contacts and little else. Voice mail is held at your provider. The amount of memory is small, something like 64K, depending on how new it is. Most data is held either at some server, or on your phone’s local storage.
It doesn’t connect to internet, rather it’s your “password” to connect to the internet. It tells the mobile network who you are, and gives it a way to bill you for your usage.
A SIM card isn’t all that special – it is just a specialized form of [smart card](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card) designed to hold specific kinds of data rather than be general purpose storage.
SIM cards can come in various data capacities, from 8 KB to at least 256 KB. All can store a maximum of 250 contacts on the SIM, but while the 32 KB has room for 33 mobile network codes (MNCs) or network identifiers, the 64 KB version has room for 80 MNCs. It doesn’t store voicemails – those are stored on the phone itself or on your carrier’s servers.
The card itself doesn’t connect to to the internet – your phone does that – but rather the SIM provides the credentials to allow you to use a particular carriers network.
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