Apparatus and method for controlling use of a SIM card of a mobile terminal

An apparatus for controlling the use of a subscriber identification module (SIM) card of a mobile terminal, the apparatus comprising:

• a SIM card mounted in the terminal, wherein the SIM card stores subscriber identification information comprising a subscriber name and a subscriber identification number;
• a radio frequency (RF) antenna connected to at least two terminals of the SIM card in a loop structure;
• a terminal control unit configured to perform an initialization process comprising receiving data related to the SIM card from a network, reading the subscriber identification information from the SIM card and generating a control signal according to whether the received data is identical to the subscriber information stored on the SIM card;
• and
• an RF antenna switch operatively coupled with the terminal control unit, the SIM card, and the RF antenna to enable using the SIM card according to the control signal generated by the terminal control unit and disable using the SIM card according to the control signal generated by the terminal control unit while the SIM card is mounted in the terminal and the terminal is turned on,
• wherein the data related to the SIM card is not received from the network if a subscriber has reported the SIM card as one of lost or stolen,
• wherein the control signal is generated according to a result of a comparison of the data received from the network to the information read from the SIM card,
• wherein the RF antenna switch connects the SIM card to the RF antenna when the data received from the network is identical to the information read from the SIM card,
• wherein the RF antenna switch disconnects the SIM card from the RF antenna when the data received from the network is not identical to the information read from the SIM card while the SIM card is mounted in the terminal and the terminal is turned on,
• wherein using the SIM card is enabled when the SIM card is connected to the RF antenna and is disabled when the SIM card is disconnected from the RF antenna while the SIM card is mounted in the terminal and the terminal is turned on.