Can I put my SIM card in other devices?

[way2roll]

My company has a corporate deal with ATT so I get really good prices on truly unlimited data. Our new FW has the connect anywhere system, which is basically a built in hospot and router/brodcast to provide wifi inside the camper. It controls all the systems in the RV from my phone and allows for remote monitoring as well. You can activate this with whatever company you choose and I could call ATT and activate it through them. But why confine my hot spot to the FW? If I have a mobile hotspot, can't I use that when not in the FW and then take the SIM card from the hot spot and install it into the connect anywhere system in the FW? Basically use the same SIM card and swap between devices? Do carriers know or care what device the SIM card is in and will it work?

Further, if I have a VZ hotspot for duplicity (I work remote) can I swap that into the FW's system too.

Maybe it doesn't matter and it's a moot point, but my thinking was that the built in system in the FW with antennas in the rv will have a stronger broadcast signal than the hotspot. Maybe it doesn't and it's not worth it.

[BobsYourUncle]

Today's technology is a lot more advanced and complicated than it was 10 - 15 years ago.

In my own experience, before smart phones, I used to do the SIM swap thing a lot with phones. My phone would die, I would get a used one off Craigslist, swap the SIM, done.

But I found with the tech advances that they now use the ESN for all devices. (Electronic Serial Number) In order to register the phone or similar on another system, such as what you describe here, they have to transfer the ESN along with the SIM.

Be it a phone or other internet capable device, the principle is all the same. Routers and other devices all have their own ESN and specific MAC address.

I quit doing it when it got to the point that I needed to call my carrier every time. It used to be a simple thing but now it isn't.

I am by no means an expert in this stuff, but can relate my own personal experience with the topic.

I think a lot of the refinements and restrictions now in place have to do with criminal activity, theft of smart phones, abuse of services and such things. The carriers all have clamped down on this, and want to keep you married to them and have total control over it all.

It goes a lot deeper than what I describe here.