What the heck is Micro SIM?

[photo by kalleboo]

Apple iPad 3G will use Mini SIM card. What the heck is it? Isn’t our normal SIM card small enough?

According to WikiPedia, micro-SIM which also know as 3FF or “third form factor” SIM is an updated and miniaturized alternative to a SIM card.

Micro SIM is even smaller than the SIM card (Mini SIM) we have in our phones now. Micro-SIM is as small as the chip itself (15 mm x 12 mm x 0.76 mm) as you can see from the comparison picture below:

Micro SIM vs Mini SIM [image from wikepedia]

What’s new about Micro SIM?

Beside backwards compatibility, Micro SIM allows multiple simultaneous applications accessing, introduce mutual authentication as a way to eliminate carrier spoofing, new PIN protection, and expand phonebook storage of the SIM card with entries for email, 2nd name, and groups.

Which phone uses Micro SIM?

As far as I know, no phone in the current market is using micro-SIM. Micro-SIM received a major boosts after announcement of Apple iPad.

What does it mean to your Apple iPad 3G?

If your local telco does not provide micro SIM then you cannot the 3G connectivity of your iPad 3G..

Pray, beg your telco to support micro SIM now.