Universal Sim for MNP ?

[shirishag75]

Hi all, Few queries :-a. Would it be a universal sim or would the sim be tied to a particular vendor. It would make sense to have a Universal Sim (meaning playable with all the mobile service providers in the country) the only hitch would be GSM or CDMA . From what little I know of GSM and CDMA, it shouldn't be that hard as they are broadcasting at different frequencies and when we do go roaming, we are able to choose providers. b. This SIM that we get on paying Rs. 19/- does anybody know the memory on that card. The IDEA SIM that I bought circa 2007 has 16 KB and nowadays the SIMS are of 64 KB (and even some above) . Does anybody have idea of that ?

 

[amitstg]

The sim will be given by the provider you are porting to. Upon filling the porting number in the application the new sim will be binded to your old number.

 

[Nishant]

b. This SIM that we get on paying Rs. 19/- does anybody know the memory on that card. The IDEA SIM that I bought circa 2007 has 16 KB and nowadays the SIMS are of 64 KB (and even some above) . Does anybody have idea of that ?

I don't think the memory of SIM cards makes any sense now as most of the mobiles available now a days have very good memory capacity and no one would keep the contacts etc on SIM.

 

[Sahyadri]

Is there any difference other than memory in 32K, 64K, 128K SIMs ?I mean like better performance to catch network signals, etc.

 

[Nishant]

Is there any difference other than memory in 32K, 64K, 128K SIMs ?

I mean like better performance to catch network signals, etc.

SIM cards doesn't have anything to do with network signals. Network signals are caught by the internal antenna of your mobile.

 

[mgcarley]

In short, SIMs merely tell the phone which Network ID to connect to, and broadcast the identity of the subscriber using that SIM to the correct network - kind of like when you choose which WiFi network to connect to with your Laptop - except with the SIM it's hard-coded rather than being selectable via software.It's not exactly secure though, as SIMs can be copied and/or reprogrammed if you have the right equipment, but that's not really relevent to this discussion 😉GSM and CDMA use different types of handsets too, as they use different types of radios on different frequencies, so were you to get a kind of "universal SIM card", it would really only apply to GSM devices.

 

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[Sushubh]

and i guess since most smartphones store contacts and sim on the phone itself, the capacity of the sim storage no longer applies.

 

[saurabh28]

When I heard about the MNP for the first time, I thought it would be as simple as going to network setting, searching for network and selecting the network of your choice. But, I was wrong and I think the topic creator wants to ask about this, isn't it?

 

[mgcarley]

When I heard about the MNP for the first time, I thought it would be as simple as going to network setting, searching for network and selecting the network of your choice. But, I was wrong and I think the topic creator wants to ask about this, isn't it?

While it is often possible to do this (it's necessary especially when roaming), you'll be charged by your provider for use of the other providers network, often at roaming rates. As I mentioned, the SIM card identifies you to a particular network. Subscriber Identity Module - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[shirishag75]

Guys, you are not listening. Not everybody is going to purchase a smartphone. Atleast I am not. I want a no-frills phone which doesn't cost as much as a lappy and I don't want to be worried about it getting lost or damaged . I have enough friends and with the exception of one or two all of them have had sad stories to share with their first smartphone, most of them being stolen or damaged.

So don't really want to go down that road. Hence it is more than relevant to know about SIMs and their feature-list for porting.

I would tell where I'm coming from. I am an IDEA subscriber and last year I had to go re-submit my credentials to make sure that I'm not cut off. Some TRAI rule/decree apparently. I don't really think it was much of sense but that's not the issue here.

When I went for it, on a hunch asked the Customer Executive about getting a higher memory capacity SIM and she told that the charges would be Rs. 100/- for the same.

Now I was in two minds as was thinking that Nokia-C2 would be hitting the market soon so atleast would be able to have my contacts and messages on a memory card. Since C2 hasn't come up so far and doesn't seem to be anywhere on the horizon (apart from Q1 '11 vague date given) think it would be a good idea to put Rs. 19/- and get some other service. As anyways, can always change back to IDEA 3 months down the line if I don't like the service 🙂

That's the whole background. And now can anybody share me any details they have of the ported SIMS they have got.

mgcarley, you are right there is nothing called 'Universal SIM' and I know about the CDMA and GSM ones, they are supposed to be some hacks around that but that's all in the wild, although nobody really knows how good or bad those are.

Its as one really does not know if Coreboot is if you want to run instead of your traditional BIOS. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Coreboot

One knows the myth but till one hasn't tried it out, don't really know.

 

[Sushubh]

well a lot of feature phones too comes with capabilities to store 500-1000 contacts on the device itself. but yea, it is always good to have everything stored on the sim for portability purposes.

 

[shirishag75]

well a lot of feature phones too comes with capabilities to store 500-1000 contacts on the device itself. but yea, it is always good to have everything stored on the sim for portability purposes.

But that is good only if its a SIM which is 'transferrable' between between service providers. If each time I/whoever have/has to buy a new SIM then it loses its relevance.

For how am I going to transfer the contacts from SIM A to SIM B ?

 

[kunalgautam]

use sync services na 😛

 

[shirishag75]

use sync services na 😛

I am guessing that is put in jest so wouldn't even attempt to ask how as no gprs 😛

 

[quackquack]

coreboot? did i hear coreboot? oh well by the way i got coreboot on my t60 and x60 and i also upgraded the chip too from 2 MiB to 4 MiB chip. Now i got loads of space and legroom. mmmm i am waiting for the soic 8 programmer, because its not wise to pull the chip from board and fix it if you screw up and soldering cables to the chip is a herculean job.
who all uses coreboot? let me know.
by the way this is my first post here.
-paul