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Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

bbc.com

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Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#21

Post by tgb »

lozenge wrote: post #13
reubenmorais wrote: post #2

Only tangentially related to the article, but where/how do researchers get global coverage SIM cards that you can just put on a stork and expect to get data/calling wherever it flies? I've looked for this before but only found what seemed like tourist scams with very high prices per MB/minute.

You can get emergency beacon devices for hiking and sailing that also work globally.

Do these use a SIM card? Thought they were satellite. That's what the first thing I googled seemed to agree with too ( https://www.yachtingworld.com/features/epirbs-plbs-and-man-o... ).

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#23

Post by jwilk »

llampx wrote: post #18

They should have either set a SIM lock or reported the SIM as lost once they stopped receiving signals from it. They presumably thought it may come online later or may have forgotten about it. Expensive mistake.

SIM lock is a restriction built into mobile phones, not into SIM cards. It does nothing to prevent SIM card abuse.

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#24

Post by reubenmorais »

pjc50 wrote: post #17
reubenmorais wrote: post #2

Only tangentially related to the article, but where/how do researchers get global coverage SIM cards that you can just put on a stork and expect to get data/calling wherever it flies? I've looked for this before but only found what seemed like tourist scams with very high prices per MB/minute.

Ideally you'd get a dedicated M2M MVNO operator who'll sell you a whole stack of them. If you just want one, you'll have to do a lot of price comparison; Three UK have some nice deals where you can use inclusive minutes/data in some non-EU countries as well as the standard EU free roaming.

Thanks for the MVNO keyword, it led me to a few interesting offerings I didn't know existed in my local market.

I did some price comparisons and found that unless I'm in different countries every month or I have a hard requirement on using the same number globally, it's much, much cheaper to just get a disposable local SIM card every time I travel.

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#25

Post by filleokus »

codetrotter wrote: post #10
PMan74 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And car companies presumably have global agreements e.g. I can drive my car across Europe and have all the navigation related stuff continue to work. But easier for Amazon or big car company to broker such an agreement. I think the question is how would Joe Public get something like this.

How many of those navigation systems use the internet though? Most consumer grade car navigation systems use offline maps.

Many of them (at least in cars < 5 years old) that I've used have had some kind of real-time traffic/congestion/construction info built into the system. I guess these use some kind of internet based communication?

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#26

Post by burning_hamster »

filleokus wrote: post #25
codetrotter wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of those navigation systems use the internet though? Most consumer grade car navigation systems use offline maps.

Many of them (at least in cars < 5 years old) that I've used have had some kind of real-time traffic/congestion/construction info built into the system. I guess these use some kind of internet based communication?

Radio, actually: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-does-live-traffic-on-...

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#27

Post by wodenokoto »

jwilk wrote: post #23
llampx wrote: post #18

They should have either set a SIM lock or reported the SIM as lost once they stopped receiving signals from it. They presumably thought it may come online later or may have forgotten about it. Expensive mistake.

SIM lock is a restriction built into mobile phones, not into SIM cards. It does nothing to prevent SIM card abuse.

What? So if I "sim lock" my card, someone else can just insert it into their device and use my minutes?

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#28

Post by smileybarry »

jwilk wrote: post #23
llampx wrote: post #18

They should have either set a SIM lock or reported the SIM as lost once they stopped receiving signals from it. They presumably thought it may come online later or may have forgotten about it. Expensive mistake.

SIM lock is a restriction built into mobile phones, not into SIM cards. It does nothing to prevent SIM card abuse.

No, SIM locks (specifically the pin code kind) program the SIM card to refuse to initialise unless you enter the correct code. It's the actual card that asks for a code, the phone merely forwards the authentication request to the user.

Re: Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork

#29

Post by krzyk »

smileybarry wrote: post #28
jwilk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SIM lock is a restriction built into mobile phones, not into SIM cards. It does nothing to prevent SIM card abuse.

No, SIM locks (specifically the pin code kind) program the SIM card to refuse to initialise unless you enter the correct code. It's the actual card that asks for a code, the phone merely forwards the authentication request to the user.

Popularly sim lock is something different see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

What you write is more of a PIN lock.

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