Comments on: Phone Trouble

By: SniperDragon

SniperDragon — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:57:55 +0000

I currently live in Texas and the Cell-Phone situation here may be different than over there. Actually, I think you’re right. When I got a new cell phone, I REQUESTED using the SIM card system for my cell phone so that I could go to Asia and easily plug my card into any Asian cell-phone.

Actually, you may not know that you use a SIM Card. If you remove the battery of your Cell Phone, a SIM Card slot may be under it. It wouldn’t hurt to double check.

By: Apreche

Apreche — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 03:08:37 +0000

What country are you living in? Most phones in the US do not have SIM cards. Verizon is the only carrier with reliable high-speed coverage in the geographic area where I spend most of my time. Verizon is a CDMA/EV-DO network. Most of the rest of the world is a GSM/GRPS/EDGE network. Cool asian phones will not work with Verizon. Verizon will not let a phone onto their network that they don’t control.

The mobile phone situation in the US is completely backwards compared to the rest of the world. It is locked down worse than DRM on iTunes music. For now, I think I’m going to just stick with my present situation and wait a few years for the situation to improve.

By: SniperDragon

SniperDragon — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 01:51:07 +0000

Excuse my misspelling of the word “competitor”. Hopefully it won’t discredit my comment in any way.

By: SniperDragon

SniperDragon — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 01:49:34 +0000

That’s odd. I have never seen a newer cell-phone that doesn’t have a SIM card slot. Also, it is entirely possible to take a T-Mobile SIM card and plug it into a Cingular-locked cell-phone. You just have to get it unlocked by the company that the SIM card is linked to(which is the tricky part. Most phone companies are reluctant to allow the usage of competetor’s phones). Of course, I am not sure about the cell-phone situation over there in Beacon; I’ve never been there or know anyone that lives there.

Regardless, if you’re having so many problems with American phones, why don’t you just order an Asian one off the internets? If you can’t do that, and if you’re willing to wait for half a year, I can easily go to Asia myself, buy a cool phone, and send it to you. Possibly free of charge.

By: Apreche

Apreche — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:17:12 +0000

I know all about SIM cards. SIM cards are very prevalent in other parts of the world, and are not widely supported in the US. Most phones in the US don’t even have SIM card slots in them. Also, many phones are locked. If I took a T-Mobile SIM card and plugged it into a Cingular-locked phone, it would not work. T-Mobile tends to be the only provider who handles things somewhat properly, but their network is slow and has poor coverage in this neck of the woods.

The other problem is that Verizon/Sprint use CDMA/EV-DO while Cingular/T-Mobile use GMS/GPRS/EDGE. They are two complete different wireless technologies that do not work together. A phone designed for one type of network does not work on the other.

Phones suck in the US. People just don’t care enough, and they don’t realize things can be better, so we aren’t going to get anything better any time soon.

By: SniperDragon

SniperDragon — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:08:08 +0000

Have you tried using the SIM Card system?

I quote Wikipedia: “A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) is a smart card roughly the size of a postage stamp that securely stores the key identifying a mobile phone service subscriber, as well as subscription information, saved telephone numbers, preferences, text messages and other information.”

To sum this up, a SIM card keeps your Verizon account information in it. Just insert the SIM card into ANY cell phone that is SIM-ready, and it’ll automatically detect your Verizon service yet will retain all of the neat functions of the individual phone. Usually, I get cell phones from Asia and then use my T-Mobile SIM card in it to get the service here in America.

Hopefully that made sense, since I don’t think it did.

By: Apreche

Apreche — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:39:26 +0000

I thought about that, but Sprint, Alltel, etc. all offer the same phones as Verizon. Well, they offer the same Smartphones.

My employer just gave me a Blackberry 8700 to replace the one I had. It is significantly better than the 7230. I would actually consider making it my primary phone if it had a camera, a touch-screen and an SD slot.

Any way, I just installed all the Google mobile applications on it. You know what? Because I use Gmail for domains, mobile Gmail doesn’t work! So even if Verizon sold me an unlocked java-supporting smartphone, it wouldn’t matter. I think for now, I’m just going to get another normal camera-phone with bluetooth as my personal phone and carry two devices with me. Hopefully by the time the contract runs out on that, there will be something on the market worth getting.

By: JJ

JJ — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:21:04 +0000

You can’t buy any phone and have Verizon activate it. Any carrier that’s non GSM clears only the ESNs that go through them, and won’t let you activate phones they didn’t sell.

Don’t you have access to any carriers that use Verizon as a roaming partner? If you go that route, as long as the roaming supports the best data speeds available in your area, it’s like having Verizon without the phone limitation. Sprint, Alltel, and others use the same technology… worth exploring.

By: Apreche

Apreche — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:10:39 +0000

Hey, that’s useful to know. However, that doesn’t solve the problem of Verizon not offering a phone that I like. All the good phones are on the other carriers. Even if the phone is unlocked, I still need to find one that doesn’t suck in the first place.

By: TripleII

TripleII — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:41:49 +0000

You don’t have to buy the phone through Verizon. Go to the local Verizon store, find the phone they offer that you like, then tell the rep there you are going to purchase the phone directly from the manufacturer that isn’t cripled and you will be back to have them activate it. They want you to think you can only use their phones, with their “enhanced” firmware/os, but that isn’t true. You also avoid the long term contract.

Nokia’s web site lets you search based on carrier and purchase direct. LG’s links to Verizons, they don’t offer the phone direct without the Verizon involvement. Soemthing to look into. I would love to see the look on the Verizon sale’s reps face when you tell them you are going to purchase the non crippled version direct and be back for them to activate it.

NOTE: Picture upload and web access, all that is the network, they can and will charge. If you purchase a phone separatley, see if it offers a PC link cable + SW to update address book, load java apps, send tones, etc.