Looking for historical sysmoSIM-GR2 card

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Mychaela Falconia mychaela.falconia at gmail.com
Wed Feb 10 18:47:24 UTC 2021


Hi Ralph,

> How can I recognize such a card, from some marking or so?

As I mentioned in my original solicitation, I have a friend who has
sysmoSIM-GR1 and sysmoUSIM-GR1 cards, but no sysmoSIM-GR2.  My friend
took some pictures of his GR1 cards, i.e., Sysmocom's other historical
long-discontinued cards:

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/pictures/SIMs/sysmo_GR1_SIMs.jpeg

As you can see from these pictures, Sysmocom's brand printing on these
ancient cards is the same as on sysmoUSIM-SJS1 which they only recently
discontinued:

http://shop.sysmocom.de/products/sysmousim-sjs1

Given that sysmoSIM-GR2 must be newer than sysmoSIM-GR1 but older than
sysmoUSIM-SJS1 (not sure about the chronological ordering between
sysmoSIM-GR2 and sysmoUSIM-GR1), and given that Sysmocom's brand
printing remained unchanged between sysmoSIM-GR1, sysmoUSIM-GR1 and
sysmoUSIM-SJS1, I can only reason that sysmoSIM-GR2 must have the same
brand printing on it - although I have no way of knowing what the
background color was, as they apparently used a different color for
each variant.  (Their current sysmoISIM-SJA2 cards are not only
unattractive black, but have different brand printing too, shifting
advertising focus from Sysmocom to Osmocom and from GSM to newer G's.)

It is also worth noting that as one can see in the above photo,
sysmoSIM-GR1 and sysmoUSIM-GR1 cards had 8 contact pads in the IC area
rather than just the required 6.  I naturally have no idea if these
extra C4 and C8 contacts have any functional circuits connected to them
(USB-ICC or somesuch) or if they are entirely non-functional, but they
are there.  As I was negotiating with Grcard in China at the end of Jan
into the beginning of Feb about getting a few sample pieces of their
current GSM-only (no USIM or ISIM) card that can also be cut in
2FF-only form factor if the customer so desires, they sent me some
pictures of those sample pieces they were going to send me, before the
shipping process hit a snafu.  The cards in those pictures were solid
white without any markings whatsoever, but lo and behold, the IC area
exhibited 8 contacts just like in those sysmoSIM-GR1 and sysmoUSIM-GR1
pictures!  I can only reason that Grcard's main products these days
are probably for LTE/5G in 4FF or triple-cut form factor and thus have
only 6 contacts, but they still have those very old-style cards with 8
contacts in the IC area.

So to summarize, I don't know exactly how sysmoSIM-GR2 cards looked,
but the available evidence points to them having the following visual
characteristics:

* Same Sysmocom brand printing as sysmoSIM-GR1, sysmoUSIM-GR1 and
sysmoUSIM-SJS1, although with an unknown background color;

* 8 contacts in the IC area;

* Either 2FF-only or 2FF+3FF cut (I have no way of knowing), but no
4FF cut, as the latter is incompatible with having 8 contacts.

> Then I can check what I have around...

If you have a card that is still fully intact, it should be extremely
easy to identify - Sysmocom's brand printing is something one can't
miss, and it would certainly say sysmoSIM-GR2 on it somewhere, in the
same place where other Sysmocom cards have their respective model
names printed.  If the card is broken out as 2FF or 3FF, it wouldn't
be as obvious, but on all other historical Sysmocom cards the 2FF
piece also carries the Sysmocom brand name and the model name,
although naturally in much smaller print.  (Looking at the picture of
sysmoUSIM-GR1 my friend sent me, it looks like that one was cut for
2FF+3FF, but breaking it out as 3FF would break the printing text that
spans the whole 2FF piece - perhaps sysmoSIM-GR2 was the same in this
regard?)

It would certainly help if Harald or someone else from Sysmocom could
tell us what background color their old sysmoSIM-GR2 cards were
printed in - then knowing the color would help in sifting through
broken-out 2FF or 3FF cards.

And yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I am seeking to re-create
a product that (if successful) would probably be equivalent to the
long-discontinued sysmoSIM-GR2.  Or to be more precise, exactly
recreating sysmoSIM-GR2 is not my specific goal (how can I recreate
something I don't have, have never seen, and don't really know -
obviously impossible), but *if* the cards which Grcard supposedly has
available currently (stuck in shipping snafu right now) are the same
platform as what sysmoSIM-GR2 used (called GrcardSIM2 in Osmocom land),
then indeed the new cards I am trying to get made with pretty printing
should be equivalent to sysmoSIM-GR2 - but right now there are too
many unknowns.

M~



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