If sim cards are so interchangeable, why does VZW give you a new sim card when you warrantee swap a phone even when it is same model for same model?
Because SIM cards are cheaper than phones and they've got a whole bunch of bad SIM cards floating around out there.
Support Our Troops!!!
<><
Notate
I don't think the price of the sim card has anything to do with it. Even if sim cards cost a only a penny, why would they add a penny to the cost of every phone swap. There must be a reason they swap sims when they swap phones.
The reason the ones on ebay don't come with sim cards, is because the sim cards store your personal information and should be used for a particular phone number.
If sim cards are so interchangeable, why does VZW give you a new sim card when you warrantee swap a phone even when it is same model for same model?
I don't think the sim card stores information. It seems to be the way Verizon links the phone to 4G.
The reason I'm saying this is when I had the Bionic, I used a way to "reacquaint" the phone to 4G. It entails powering down the phone, removing the sim card and powering up again (ignore the warning that a sim card isn't inserted). Then power down, reinsert the card and power up. Well, I reinserted the card in backwards and fried it. The phone worked fine, but no 4G. I took it to a Verizon store and told them what I did. They confirmed the sim card was fried and swapped one out for free.
That would be very wrong. The SIM card stores "your" name and phone number. As long as you are using "your" SIM from another phone it will work. Try inserting a SIM from a friends phone into your phone, and see what happens. Your phone will ask to activate with that SIM and will then assume the name and phone number from your friend and be linked to his/her account.