SIM card question

In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
Mototola, etc. If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever),
and I insert this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual telephone?

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› See More: SIM card question

Please elaborate on the service you have now. AT&T Wireless or Cingular?
If you have a Cingular SIM card you should be able to put it in any brand
GSM phone (HTC, Motorola, Nokia, etc.) as long as it was made for Cingular's
service.

Fred

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
> phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
> the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
> new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
> I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
> Mototola, etc. If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever),
> and I insert this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
> information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual telephone?
>

Another thing to consider is if you are carrying insurance on the phone
that is currently registered on the network. If so then you WILL want
to call and have them update the account if not then if you swap the
SIM's and the phone registers there is no need to call customer care.

Fred wrote:
> Please elaborate on the service you have now. AT&T Wireless or Cingular?
> If you have a Cingular SIM card you should be able to put it in any brand
> GSM phone (HTC, Motorola, Nokia, etc.) as long as it was made for Cingular's
> service.
>
> Fred
>
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
> > phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
> > the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
> > new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
> > I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
> > Mototola, etc. If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever),
> > and I insert this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
> > information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual telephone?
> >

It is alleged that [email protected] claimed:

> In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
> phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
> the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
> new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
> I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
> Mototola, etc. If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever),
> and I insert this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
> information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual telephone?

If you have a SIM card based service, then all you have to do is get a
phone that works on that carrier and place the card in the new phone.

I just upgraded to a newer model of my GSM phone, and also went from a
Cingular locked version to an unlocked version. Easiest phone upgrade
I've ever done. All I did was the above, and used the phone's built-in
command to get the network data. I didn't even have to re-enter the
voicemail number or data network settings.

This was my first GSM-to-GSM upgrade.

A buddy of mine works for Nokia, so he gets to upgrade phones +often+,
(he seems to have a new one every time I see him) at no cost for the
hardware. I doubt he'd take advantage of that as much if he weren't
using a SIM card/GSM service.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"If I am ever the Hero top 100 list: #73. When I make my escape from
the Evil Overlord's encampment, I will sabotage as much of the enemy's
pursuit capacity (horses, jeeps, rocket bikes, etc) as opportunity
permits, sparing only enough for the use of my companions and me.

That part I knew, but then what is stopping me from purchasing a
cingular SIM (which I did for more memory (64K and 3G service), and
having two phone with two cloned SIM cards (one copied from the phone
memory to the SIM, then placed in the other phone, and copied to the
new phone memory, then replacing the original SIM in the new phone and
copying to that SIM (as it has more memory and faster speed), and then
placing the original SIM back into the older phone. The system will
see two phones with the same number, but what if these phones access
different cell sites. The SIMS have to do something else to prevent
that scenario from happening, but people are transfering the cell phone
SIM to a laptop card and using both (but not at the same time), so the
system dosen't compare ESN's with phone numbers for each use.

To answer one of the posters, I have Cingular now (GSM), Nokia phone
and I am upgrading (via ebay) to an 8525. I did purchase a 3G, 64K
Cingular SIM card separately). Will I be able to use the $19.99
unlimited data/limited message plan (in addition to the 450 min. plan)
with this phone or do I have to get the laptop plan?

The SIM will only allow ONE phone number tied to it on the system.
Each SIM card number is unique and that number needs to be registered
in the system in order for it to be active and working on the system.

[email protected] wrote:
> That part I knew, but then what is stopping me from purchasing a
> cingular SIM (which I did for more memory (64K and 3G service), and
> having two phone with two cloned SIM cards (one copied from the phone
> memory to the SIM, then placed in the other phone, and copied to the
> new phone memory, then replacing the original SIM in the new phone and
> copying to that SIM (as it has more memory and faster speed), and then
> placing the original SIM back into the older phone. The system will
> see two phones with the same number, but what if these phones access
> different cell sites. The SIMS have to do something else to prevent
> that scenario from happening, but people are transfering the cell phone
> SIM to a laptop card and using both (but not at the same time), so the
> system dosen't compare ESN's with phone numbers for each use.
>
> To answer one of the posters, I have Cingular now (GSM), Nokia phone
> and I am upgrading (via ebay) to an 8525. I did purchase a 3G, 64K
> Cingular SIM card separately). Will I be able to use the $19.99
> unlimited data/limited message plan (in addition to the 450 min. plan)
> with this phone or do I have to get the laptop plan?

It is alleged that [email protected] claimed:

> That part I knew, but then what is stopping me from purchasing a
> cingular SIM (which I did for more memory (64K and 3G service), and
> having two phone with two cloned SIM cards (one copied from the phone
> memory to the SIM, then placed in the other phone, and copied to the
> new phone memory, then replacing the original SIM in the new phone and
> copying to that SIM (as it has more memory and faster speed), and then
> placing the original SIM back into the older phone. The system will
> see two phones with the same number, but what if these phones access

So far as I know, that's not possible. To the best of my knowledge,
and I could be wrong, you cannot copy the phone's own number from card
to card like that, only things like your phone book. You'd need an
external SIM Card reader to actually clone the card.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

"If I am ever the Hero top 100 list: #73. When I make my escape from
the Evil Overlord's encampment, I will sabotage as much of the enemy's
pursuit capacity (horses, jeeps, rocket bikes, etc) as opportunity
permits, sparing only enough for the use of my companions and me.

"[email protected]" <[email protected]> writes:

> In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
> phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
> the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
> new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
> I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
> Mototola, etc.

Yup. I switched mine twice this weekend among a Motorola Razr and my
Nokia.

> If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever), and I insert
> this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
> information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual
> telephone?

I needed to get my SIM directly from Cingular and have them activate
that SIM on my account. Didn't cost much. Your SIM, think of as
your unique ESN if you will....


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"Todd H." <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "[email protected]" <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> In the old pre-GSM days (pre SIM cards), if you wanted to upgrade your
>> phone, you would call your carrier (ATT), and give them the ESN # of
>> the phone and your phone number and the account would be changed to the
>> new phone. Is that still necessary with GSM phones and SIM cards? Can
>> I use a SIM card from my Nokia phone in another brand of phone (HTC),
>> Mototola, etc.
>
> Yup. I switched mine twice this weekend among a Motorola Razr and my
> Nokia.
>
>> If I purchase a Cingular SIM on ebay (or whereever), and I insert
>> this SIM in place of my old SIM, what will happen? Is the
>> information automatically stored on the SIM from the actual
>> telephone?
>
> I needed to get my SIM directly from Cingular and have them activate
> that SIM on my account. Didn't cost much. Your SIM, think of as
> your unique ESN if you will....
>
>
> --
> Todd H.
> http://www.toddh.net/

You can buy the SIM from eBay, lots cheaper, and call CS to get it
activated. I've done it several times.
...
bamp
>

"bamp" <bampatcenturyteldotnet> writes:

>
> You can buy the SIM from eBay, lots cheaper, and call CS to get it
> activated. I've done it several times.

Cool--good to know.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Is there are a difference between a cingular 64K smartcard (SIM) and a
similar one with a 3G stamp on it? Is it just a newer designation?