Cellular carriers can track your cell phone’s location using triangulation; when there are three cellular towers nearby, those towers together can pinpoint your phone’s location.
But what about your SIM card? Is it possible to track your SIM card’s location when it’s out of your phone?
Here’s Whether It’s Possible To Track A SIM Card If It’s Not Inside A Phone:
It’s impossible to track a SIM card’s location if it’s not inside a phone. SIM cards don’t have GPS receivers to locate themselves. They also don’t have any radio transmitters to send data to cell towers. So location tracking is only possible after the SIM card is inserted into a phone.
Is It Possible To Track A SIM Card If It’s Not Inside A Phone?
It’s impossible to track the location of a SIM card when it’s not inside a phone.
A SIM card is only an integrated circuit that stores the authentication data required to register to a cellular network. It doesn’t have any radio transmitters or receivers to communicate with cell towers.
So when the SIM card is out of your phone, your cellular carrier can’t track the SIM card’s location.
Can A SIM Card Be Tracked Via GPS If It’s Not Inside A Phone?
It’s impossible to track a SIM card’s location using GPS when the SIM card is not inside a phone.
SIM cards don’t have GPS hardware, so they can’t determine their current location. They also don’t have any radio transmitters to send data to cell towers.
Can A Phone’s Location Be Tracked After Removing The SIM Card?
There are several ways to track the location of a phone after removing the SIM card.
Location tracking apps can track your phone’s location using Wi-Fi internet. They don’t require cellular data and therefore work without a SIM card.
iPhone users can use the Find My app to track the location of their iPhones. When the iPhone doesn’t have a SIM card, the Find My app can update the location using Wi-Fi internet.
Find My app can even track your iPhone’s location when the iPhone is offline. Newer iOS versions support a feature called Find My network to track the location of Apple devices without cellular or Wi-Fi internet. When the iPhone is offline, it will send its location to nearby Apple devices like other iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks via Bluetooth. Those nearby devices will then send your iPhone’s location to the Apple servers using their internet connections, making it possible to track your iPhone even when it is offline.
With the latest iOS 15, your iPhone will send its location to the Find My network using Bluetooth even when the iPhone is powered off. So you can now track your powered-off iPhone’s location even when it doesn’t have a SIM card installed and doesn’t have Wi-Fi internet.
Android users can use Google’s Find My Device app to track the location of their Android phones. The Find My Device app can update the phone’s location to Google servers using Wi-Fi internet, allowing you to track your Android phone without a SIM card installed.
However, Google’s Find My Device app currently can’t track your Android phone when it is offline; it requires a cellular or Wi-Fi internet connection to update the location to Google servers. Google might, however, support offline tracking of Android devices in the near future.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can also use Samsung’s Find My mobile app for location tracking. It can track your Galaxy phone using Wi-Fi internet even when the phone doesn’t have a SIM card installed.
Find My mobile app can also track your Galaxy phone when it is offline. Like Apple’s Find My network, Samsung also has its own peer-to-peer mesh network of connected Galaxy devices for this offline location tracking.
Spyware on your phone can also track your phone’s location even after you remove the SIM card. Such spyware can send your phone’s location to remote servers using Wi-Fi internet.
However, an uncompromised phone with no spyware won’t send your location to remote servers without your permission.
Can A Phone’s Location Be Tracked Using IMEI After Removing The SIM Card?
It’s impossible to track your phone’s location using its IMEI number after removing the SIM card. Without the SIM card, the phone won’t send its IMEI to cellular towers, so no one can track the phone using its IMEI.
However, if you use your phone to make an emergency call after removing the SIM card, your phone may send its IMEI to a nearby tower. But operators won’t store the IMEI numbers of devices that don’t belong to their networks. So after removing the SIM card, it is practically impossible to track the phone using its IMEI number even if you make an emergency call.
Conclusion
It’s impossible to track the location of a SIM card when it’s not inside a phone. SIM cards don’t have GPS hardware to locate themselves; they also don’t have radio transmitters to send data to cell towers.
On the other hand, it’s possible to track the location of a cell phone even after removing the SIM card. Location tracking apps, available for both iPhones and Android phones, can use Wi-Fi internet to track the phone’s location.
Also, with their Bluetooth-based peer-to-peer mesh networks, iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones allow you to track the phone’s location without cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity.
