What SIM does stand for? It means subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module. The first SIM card in the world was developed in 1991 by the German company Giesecke & Devrient. They sold 300 SIM cards to Radiolinja, a Finnish wireless network operator. In 1992, they sold the first GSM mobile phone with a SIM card; it was a Nokia 1101. Today, it’s hard to find a person who’s never used a SIM card – over 7 billion gadgets around the world use them to make calls, send SMS and surf the web. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices