Report: Apple Building Own SIM Card for Fast Carrier Swapping

Apple is believed to be working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to develop a SIM card built into the iPhone, making it easy for phone owners to use a carrier of their choice. Gemalto is the company that sued Google, Motorola, HTC and Samsung on Monday over alleged patent infringement in Android.

GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham reports today that sources tell her the device is being built for European markets, where carriers are more competitive and the iPhone has largely lost its exclusivity already. Imagine, though, if such technology were to come to US markets. Built-in choice of carriers could increase competition, drive down data prices and potentially impact limitations on what kinds of apps are allowed on the iPhone, in as much as carriers object to things like VOIP and tethering.

 

Higginbotham writes:

The Gemalto SIM, according to my sources, is embedded in a chip that has an upgradeable flash component and a ROM area. The ROM area contains data provided by Gemalto with everything related to IT and network security, except for the carrier related information. The flash component will receive the carrier related data via a local connection which could be the PC or a dedicated device, so it can be activated on the network. Gemalto will provide the back-end infrastructure that allows service and number provisioning on the carrier network.

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