> As far as I remember, the ICCID never actually appears in standard network messaging.
Yeah, that would be the IMSI (which a given SIM card can have multiple of, e.g. for switching to a more beneficial home network while roaming!)
The ICCID is useful for identifying a given physical SIM card (e.g. so that the phone can link a given user-selected profile name to it/the associated phone line for a "preferred line for contact" indicator in dual-SIM phones), and probably also as an identifier when dynamically assigning a new IMSI over the air.
> for the sake of emergency calling
The IMEI can indeed be an identifier of last resort for emergency calls. I wonder if some countries use it to block abuse/spam calls to emergency services, or more importantly, why some others aren't?
In Germany, for example, SIM-less emergency calls are no longer possible, supposedly due to many people calling the local emergency number to test whether a used phone is in working condition without inserting a SIM card... I don't know what they're doing with the IMSI in that case, and if it's locking these callers out, why they can't do the same for the IMEI.
Yeah, that would be the IMSI (which a given SIM card can have multiple of, e.g. for switching to a more beneficial home network while roaming!)
The ICCID is useful for identifying a given physical SIM card (e.g. so that the phone can link a given user-selected profile name to it/the associated phone line for a "preferred line for contact" indicator in dual-SIM phones), and probably also as an identifier when dynamically assigning a new IMSI over the air.
> for the sake of emergency calling
The IMEI can indeed be an identifier of last resort for emergency calls. I wonder if some countries use it to block abuse/spam calls to emergency services, or more importantly, why some others aren't?
In Germany, for example, SIM-less emergency calls are no longer possible, supposedly due to many people calling the local emergency number to test whether a used phone is in working condition without inserting a SIM card... I don't know what they're doing with the IMSI in that case, and if it's locking these callers out, why they can't do the same for the IMEI.