SIM card - only for GSM or ??

Which types of phones have SIM cards ?
I recall that initially the GSM phones had them,
but don't know if they have also become mainstream
for a lot more phones that are not on GSM networks ?

I friend travelled to Egypt, and said he "bought" a SIM with prepaid calls,
and loaded it onto his phone, and then used his normal SIM the rest of the
time ??
How did he do that.... did the prepay SIM get "copied" to some internal area
?

What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?

Another friend just upgraded to a new BB on Sprint (I think),
and when he was at BestBuy, the clerk "pocketed" the old SIM,
until my friend caught him, and demanded the SIM be put back into the new
BB.

---

› See More: SIM card - only for GSM or ??

P.Schuman wrote:
> Which types of phones have SIM cards ?
> I recall that initially the GSM phones had them,
> but don't know if they have also become mainstream
> for a lot more phones that are not on GSM networks ?

Only GSM phones have SIM cards. iDEN phones have a "RUIM" card that
looks like a SIM card. Once upon a time, CDMA phones were going to get
RUIM cards but it didn't happen.
>
> I friend travelled to Egypt, and said he "bought" a SIM with prepaid calls,

You do that in the US and in Europe, too.

> and loaded it onto his phone, and then used his normal SIM the rest of the
> time ??
> How did he do that.... did the prepay SIM get "copied" to some internal area
> ?

It's just as easy as it sounds. Nothing special happens.

>
> What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?
>

If I put your SIM in my phone - I have your telephone number and phonebook.


> Another friend just upgraded to a new BB on Sprint (I think),
> and when he was at BestBuy, the clerk "pocketed" the old SIM,
> until my friend caught him, and demanded the SIM be put back into the new
> BB.

Sprint does not use SIM cards. When an old number is moved to a new SIM,
the old SIM is jewelry, I think. Someone will correct me, I'm sure.
Regards

On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:13:20 -0600, P.Schuman wrote:

> Which types of phones have SIM cards ?
> I recall that initially the GSM phones had them,
> but don't know if they have also become mainstream
> for a lot more phones that are not on GSM networks ?

Nope, only GSM phones.

> I friend travelled to Egypt, and said he "bought" a SIM with prepaid calls,
> and loaded it onto his phone, and then used his normal SIM the rest of the
> time ??
> How did he do that.... did the prepay SIM get "copied" to some internal area

The SIM is just read by the phone and it responds, like switching USB
drives between computers.

> What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?

The new phone works on your network just like the old one.

[snip]

>> What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?
>>

>If I put your SIM in my phone - I have your telephone number and phonebook.

Not entirely. Numbers (and addresses...) that are stored
in the _phone's_ memory aren't transferred over.

And as I've discovered to my vast annoyance, SIM cards
do _not_ hold the addresses, so those have to stay
on the phone.


--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
[email protected]
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

P.Schuman wrote:
> Which types of phones have SIM cards ?
> I recall that initially the GSM phones had them,
> but don't know if they have also become mainstream
> for a lot more phones that are not on GSM networks ?

The only time I've seen CDMA phones that could take SIM cards was in
Korea during the FIFA World Cup. SK Telecom in Korea may still offer
this service with rented phones (you use your own SIM in their CDMA phone).

See
"http://www.cellular.co.za/news_2002/012202-international_roaming_goes_globa.htm"

There are also the combinations GSM/CDMA phones, but only the GSM part
of it uses a SIM card.

At 31 Dec 2007 09:13:20 -0600 P.Schuman wrote:
> Which types of phones have SIM cards ?
> I recall that initially the GSM phones had them,
> but don't know if they have also become mainstream
> for a lot more phones that are not on GSM networks ?


Some Asian CDMA phones use SIMs as do Nextel iDen phones. American CDMA
phones do not use them.

> I friend travelled to Egypt, and said he "bought" a SIM with prepaid
> calls, and loaded it onto his phone, and then used his normal SIM
> the rest of the time ??
> How did he do that.... did the prepay SIM get "copied" to some
> internal area ?

No- it's one or the other. You take one out to insert the other. I assume
your friend used the Egyptian prepaid SIM in Egypt then put his usual one
back in the phone when he left.

> What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?


Picture the SIM as like the ESN of your Verizon phone. In GSM the SIM is
activated, not the phone. The phones are just "dumb" generic phones that
belong to whatever account the currently inserted SIM belongs to.

>
> Another friend just upgraded to a new BB on Sprint (I think),
> and when he was at BestBuy, the clerk "pocketed" the old SIM,
> until my friend caught him, and demanded the SIM be put back into the new
> BB.

It must have been a Nextel BB (Sprint bought Nextel a few years ago and
runs the two incompatible networks side by side.) Sprint's CDMA phones do
not use SIMs, but the Nextel phones do.

I'm not sure why the clerk was "pocketing" a old used SIM- they're
essentially valueless. He MAY have been "pocketing" the NEW one- they have
a small inventory value to a store, and upgraders don't need them since
they move the old existing SIM from the old phone to the new. Most stores
remove SIMs from upgrade handsets, since SIMs "belong" to the account
rather than to the phone, and upgrade handsets don't start new accounts.

I just replaced my T-Mobile SIM a few months ago (as a trobleshooting
measure suggested by T-Mo technical support.) It was from 2001, still said
"Voicestream" (T-Mo's predecessor) on it, and had been in at least a half-
dozen different phones in my tenure with T-Mo, before I replaced it with a
new one.

Right, some asian cdma phones use R-UIM cards which are compatable with SIM
cards. So if you were from Korea and threw it into a GSM phone with a roam
agreement with that carrier, would work. IDEN used SIM's.

Gordon Huff wrote:
>> Another friend just upgraded to a new BB on Sprint (I think),
>> and when he was at BestBuy, the clerk "pocketed" the old SIM,
>> until my friend caught him, and demanded the SIM be put back into
>> the new BB.
>
> Sprint does not use SIM cards. When an old number is moved to a new
> SIM, the old SIM is jewelry, I think. Someone will correct me, I'm
> sure. Regards

As you said, sprint (and any other carriers CDMA phones do *NOT* use sim
cards, many CDMA phones have memory cards, and on those you can not only
store phone specific stuff but also store all sorts of personal information
on.... Ergo, if it was a sprint phone, there was no way a sim card was
involved in a number swap, and if he bought a new phone, that doesn't have a
place for a memory card, what/how can he put the memory card in a phone that
doesn't have a memory card slot?

Peter Pan wrote:
> Gordon Huff wrote:
>>> Another friend just upgraded to a new BB on Sprint (I think),
>>> and when he was at BestBuy, the clerk "pocketed" the old SIM,
>>> until my friend caught him, and demanded the SIM be put back into
>>> the new BB.
>>
>> Sprint does not use SIM cards. When an old number is moved to a new
>> SIM, the old SIM is jewelry, I think. Someone will correct me, I'm
>> sure. Regards
>
> As you said, sprint (and any other carriers CDMA phones do *NOT* use
> sim cards, many CDMA phones have memory cards, and on those you can
> not only store phone specific stuff but also store all sorts of
> personal information on.... Ergo, if it was a sprint phone, there was
> no way a sim card was involved in a number swap, and if he bought a
> new phone, that doesn't have a place for a memory card, what/how can
> he put the memory card in a phone that doesn't have a memory card
> slot?

The same holds true for GSM phones. Many now sport slots foro microSD
cards. I have 2gb card in my razr v6 plus a SIM.

Michael N. Paris wrote:
> Right, some asian cdma phones use R-UIM cards which are compatable with
> SIM cards. So if you were from Korea and threw it into a GSM phone with
> a roam agreement with that carrier, would work. IDEN used SIM's.

On the SK Telecom phones, you put your SIM card from your GSM phone into
their CDMA phone. Whatever it's called, the SK Telecom phone took a SIM
card.

* danny burstein wrote:
> [snip]
>
>>> What happens when you move a SIM from phone to phone ?
>>>
>
>> If I put your SIM in my phone - I have your telephone number and phonebook.
>
> Not entirely. Numbers (and addresses...) that are stored
> in the _phone's_ memory aren't transferred over.
>
> And as I've discovered to my vast annoyance, SIM cards
> do _not_ hold the addresses, so those have to stay
> on the phone.
>
>

A huge annoyance. One time the Nokia shop in Hong Kong unbeknownst to
me updated the software in my 6260 and I lost all addresses, etc., only
had names and phone numbers. Guess that's the benefit of the software
in that it could be downloaded to a computer, thence to a CD or thumb
drive as backup.

Also on the 6260 only one card's phone name and phone numbers can be
copied to the sim at a time, hence it's quite a tedious effort for such
a minimal amount of info!
Miles