Mobile network not avaiable

[khaepmu]

I have been trying to make a local call but all I get is 'No network connection available' and on top of my phone there is a small coninuous message that reads'No sim card-no network connection'. What has happened to my phone? I have never opened it or touched the sim card. I tried some advice from a youtube search but it dodn't wotk.

[khaepmu]

Sorry. It should read 'Mobile netowrk not avaialable'.

[tiocfaidh]

it sounds as though your SIM card is not registered on the network. Have you tried turning the phone off and on again ????

Failing that, take the SIM card out and wipe it and reinsert it. SIM cards should be replaced every few years, how long you had it?

[khaepmu]

Problem fixed. Thanks.

[topt]

On 6/24/2020 at 11:18 AM, tiocfaidh said:

SIM cards should be replaced every few years, how long you had it?

Why? I had my previous one here 10 years......... 

[RichCor]

1 hour ago, topt said:

On 6/24/2020 at 11:18 AM, tiocfaidh said:

SIM cards should be replaced every few years, how long you had it?

Why? I had my previous one here 10 years......... 

There have been a lot of changes to the provider networks over the past 10 years and the original SIM cards lacked the non-volatile memory capacity to take over-the-air updates, usually requiring the SIM Card be replaced with a newer higher memory capacity version. Otherwise the same card should last. AIS has forced me to swap my SIM (but keep my same PAYG phone number) twice since 2011.

 

The suggestion of removing, cleaning, and reinserting when encountering SIM Card not detected or network unavailable messages is a good one as sometimes the card reader and card contacts get fowled and a good cleaning and reseat of the card allows data contact to be reestablished. 

[topt]

26 minutes ago, RichCor said:

There have been a lot of changes to the provider networks over the past 10 years and the original SIM cards lacked the non-volatile memory capacity to take over-the-air updates, usually requiring the SIM Card be replaced with a newer higher memory capacity version. Otherwise the same card should last. AIS has forced me to swap my SIM (but keep my same PAYG phone number) twice since 2011.

 

The suggestion of removing, cleaning, and reinserting when encountering SIM Card not detected or network unavailable messages is a good one as sometimes the card reader and card contacts get fowled and a good cleaning and reseat of the card allows data contact to be reestablished. 

Thanks. The second part I understand but can you give me any more detail on the first part? I may be missing something obvious but what OTA update would the SIM need for example.

I think I actually got my original AIS SIM in 2007/8 and it has been in a few different phones up until my current phone died a week ago and I had to change it for a new nano sim.

[RichCor]

1 hour ago, topt said:

I may be missing something obvious but what OTA update would the SIM need for example.

A SIM Card has to contain identifying, authentication and network-specific data a device requires to allow it to connect to provider's wireless network, or 'roam' on other contracted networks.

 

While rare, wireless carriers may want to update the preferred roaming list or other "carrier setting" during the lifetime of the SIM Card. An "Over The Air" update is performed allowing the device to rewrite portions of the SIM Card data, rather than force large groups of users to present their SIM Cards for manual update or swap out just for a minor but functional data element change.

 

There's a pretty clear 'technical' writeup on Wikipedia about Sim Card operation, function, and data elements: SIM card