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Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

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Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#161

Post by mxfh »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #94
scholia wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with loads of money just buy two phones? ;-) You're right, but it does feature in some higher-end phones http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Lenovo-Vibe-Z2_id8895

I'm not really privy to the psychy of someone who uses a dual SIM, I doubt most readers on Hackernews use one. To me, I visualize a Chinese business man who wants separate numbers to separate his official (married) life and his gray (mistress) life. But this is just a stereotype I developed to deal with going to the provinces. Is Lenovo now considered high end?

It's supper convenient to have a backup data plan just by switching to your second SIM on a dual-SIM phone, as I do regularly. It's definitely a not mainstream feature so it falls flat in the high-end flagship phones. Also carriers won't bundle those, so it's really more of a market thing.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#162

Post by mikinner »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #52
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #2

Probably the most interesting thing from Apple today, in my opinion. The ability to buy short term plans from different providers effortlessly can turn my tablet into a much more versatile device, and increase competition and reduce long-term carrier lock-in. It's pretty sweet and if it can set a standard for phones then we'll see carriers become true utilities between which customers can switch easily if they get po…

AT&T, unless they've taken it away again yet, offers an iPad plan that's $25 for 1G or 3 months whichever comes first. Which is kind of sort of a short term plan.

I am surprised Sprint is on board, they have always been difficult to work with in the past.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#163

Post by reportingsjr »

ams6110 wrote: post #150
TeMPOraL wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I learned is that there are things in life you shouldn't be cheap about, and one of them is most definitely a smartphone. You're buying a device you'll be using every day, likely pulling it up for few seconds every little while. You definitely don't want to have a smartphone that looks like crap, hangs up all the time and in the end won't let you do half of the things it was supposed to do. This would be in…

I've got a Moto-G from Republic Wireless. $149 to buy the phone and $10/month. It's perfectly fine.

My SO switched to the same thing about 4 or 5 months ago. She was paying $40/mo with AT&T and had a crappy alcatel lucent phone. She has absolutely loved the Moto G. It is very, very similar to the Galaxy Nexus with a few updates. Definitely a good deal!

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#164

Post by francuzz »

scholia wrote: post #67
Ricapar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about the user experience. If switching, a user no longer has to wait on delivery of a small physical item from the new carrier. The user doesn't have to fiddle with a paperclip to pop out the SIM. (Average user could be scared to do so, or could scratch/bend the rather fragile SIM tray). It could all theoretically be done from a settings menu.

It also avoids the problem I have at the moment: three smartphones that take different sized SIMs ;-)

Yes, but this problem was created mainly by Apple itself when they "standardised" nano-SIM

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#165

Post by WWKong »

colinbartlett wrote: post #58
rconti wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

shrug Just paid $750 for an iPhone 6, unlocked. The alternative was renting it from my carrier for a similar amount, divided into 24 months, and being handcuffed to them for unlocks and the like. By using BYOD pricing on my ATT plan, I pay less every month than I would on a subsidy. Yeah, I'm not everyone , but arguing that "most people" won't do what I did is kind of missing the point-- they already DO pay that much…

I've converted at least a dozen friends and family members to this route just by showing them with simple math how much I save. I think it's very slowly catching on how bad a deal it is to rent your phone on contract.

Help me understand the math. With contract I pay $200. Without I pay $750. Difference = $550. Divided by 24 months = $23. Do I pay more than that to ATT each month? Assumption is that I get a new phone every 2 yrs which I have been for the past many cycles.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#166

Post by runeks »

noselasd wrote: post #159
netcan wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on the other side completely, I'm a little awed at the lack of coverage, and consumer demand for this. I don't think this is a technological thing, it's an industry structure thing. Why do we even need SIMs? Obviously we need some way of deciding which phone should ring wen a call goes through the either, but why does it need to be a piece of plastic. A simple software replacement for a SIM would open a lot ip. Y…

The physical SIM card is secure, it stores your private keys for identifying you, and you can't extract those keys without damaging the SIM card. At least if the SIM cards are produced to spec. Can you make it equally secure in software, or can I borrow your phone and "easily" clone you ?

> Can you make it equally secure in software, or can I borrow your phone and "easily" clone you ?

I think we need a TPM-like[1] device for that to work. And I think an iPhone has one of those[2].

Perhaps that is the point: Apple convinced credit card companies to give them "card present"-prices for Touch ID purchases because a Touch ID-enabled device uses special hardware for key storage. Perhaps Apple has convinced mobile carriers to allow them to store private keys for cellular networks in the same place, because of its alleged security.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_ID#Security_and_privacy

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#167

Post by fps »

maximumoverload wrote: post #22
danilocampos wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is Apple's supply chain management just got a ton simpler as they don't have to maintain separate SKUs by carrier for each iPad variant.

Hm. In here, we don't have separate packages for separate carriers. For all 3 major carriers, you just get your phone and in a separate envelope, you get your SIM card.

what did you do prior to the advent of 10-band GSM radios?

I'm in the US and I've almost always bought cheap unlocked phones and SIM cards, but until recently I've had to hunt around to get the right variant of a phone for my preferred provider. Eg. T-Mobile uses 1700/1900/2100Mhz, AT&T uses 700/850/1700/2300.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies#United_Sta...

The latest iPhones and some other phones now have radios that cover all frequencies, but those radios are expensive and typically only come on phones that cost more than $700.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#168

Post by zw »

uptown wrote: post #86
lh7777 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I'm on AT&T, but bought an unlocked Verizon iPhone 6. I may not end up switching carriers in the next two years, but it's nice to have the extra flexibility for the same price I'd end up paying if I went with subsidized or Next plans.

How do you go about buying a Verizon iPhone 6 outright? Do you do that at a Verizon store, or can Apple sell that to you?

Yeah, they sell off-contract Verizon phones at the fruit store. They're unlocked GSM global phones, pretty sweet. I got one because they were all my store had and immediately popped in my T-Mo SIM.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#169

Post by bentcorner »

bradddd wrote: post #113
apayan wrote: post #82

Apple filed a patent on this Virtual SIM card in 2011. More info here: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/11/apple-in... The linked article suggests it's a method to save space in the hardware design so the SIM is not user serviceable. However, it also forces you to only buy data service from Apple approved carriers. Notice in the screen shot from the OP's article that Cricket or any of the more afforda…

People are missing the point that there isn't an actual sim card now, that you don't get the "apple" convenience AND the ability to pop in some random carrier's. It's convenience at the cost of flexibility.

That's actually pretty terrible. I was thinking it was a SIM card with some Apple-designed logic in it. Not a baked-in SIM card. I wasn't really considering the device but now it's out of the question. Hopefully they don't do the same thing to their phones.

Re: Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile

#170

Post by [deleted] »

Someone wrote: post #43
koyote wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like a step back to me. Want to change operator but the cheapest operator does not have a deal with Apple? Well you're out of luck!

No, you just do what you had to do before: get a SIM-card from your operator, and put it in your iPhone.

[deleted]
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