ETSI Approves Apple’s Controversial New Nano-SIM Format

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This is the nano-SIM card that will be in your future iPhones.
This is the nano-SIM card that will be in your future iPhones.

Despite disapproval from its rivals, Apple’s new 4FF nano-SIM format has been approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) this morning, edging out other proposals from the likes of Motorola, Nokia, and Research in Motion. The new card is said to be 40% smaller than existing micro-SIM cards, but it offers all of the same functionality. 

ETSI announced that a new proposal had been approved on its website earlier today, and although it did not mention Apple’s name, it does confirm that it is the “fourth form factor” (4FF) format that was chosen. Additionally, the measurements of the new nano-SIM — which are 12.3mm wide by 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick — match up with those in Apple’s proposals.

ETSI explains how the new standard was chosen:

The new form factor was adopted by industry with the involvement of major mobile network operators, smart card suppliers and mobile device manufacturers. The new design will be published in due course in ETSI’s TS 102 221 specification, freely available like all ETSI standards from the ETSI website.

Apple’s design has received much criticism from the likes of Nokia in recent months, because it is so small it requires manufacturers to make changes to their hardware. Furthermore, there are also concerns that users will be able to lodge the nano-SIM into existing SIM slots accidentally.

However, Apple’s design was amended to make it slightly larger, and it seems those changes appeased rivals’ concerns.

Source: ETSI

Via: The Next Web

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