On 12/28/21, k <gmkarl@gmail.com> wrote:
Point of sale tracks the SIM, but unfortunately a SIM is probably still not generateable onto blank cards?
If you mean generating a new sim from nothing, sounds cool, not something I'm experienced with personally. I think of the data on the sim as the "login" information for the cell provider, so that might mean either being a cell provider or stealing service.
I'm thinking if you figured out the insides of a sim card you could probably social engineer some support reps to get the needed data for your account to generate your own sim. Not sure how you'd pay for the account.
I bet in some area they have community sim cards.
SIM cloning, while useful, is duplicating, not creating a new unique SIM, and problems with simultaneous use arise. And community use implies some non-privacy that users may or may not wish. Millions of SIM's are encoded to providers, thus not unique or relevant here. SIM's serial (key) are assigned (provisioned, paired to) a msisdn (phone number) upon registering (signup, account creation, paying) by sending the SIM serial (key) to provider to get the msisdn, which is not the relevant process here. Question is if the SIM serial key used in that process, can be a randomly generated one (ie if the SIM serial keys aren't registered by and kept in the providers mobile pre-provisioning db) and then burned to the SIM, and then used to register for the msisdn service. Neither of which would work if providers and/or towers, have and share lists of all the manufacturer IMEI's and all the providers SIM keys, as part of manufacturing and provisioning chains, and then block all others they happen to see on the air (random gen'd ones). Providers can and do share and shutdown stolen IMEI's, cloned numbers, etc. And towers can still do whatever they want. But that's not a question donors to communities journos victims homeless etc might have. Same as might want to donate a fresh IMEI number to others, they might want to donate a fresh SIM key as well. Recipients of such donors gifts might then use the normal online (or cell based) SIM activation/signup process to get and turn on their own legit new [prepaid] phone service, then keep applying the usual monthly topup cards. Prepaid store bought SIMs typically include a small initial number of minutes or month inside the SIM packet, whereas a freshly generated SIM key may or may not. People would have to investigate how that all works.