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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

#181

Post by korzun »

nknighthb wrote: post #115
korzun wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walk in any providers store and they will do it for you, free of charge. Takes 2 minutes. People who understand what a SIM like this does, will definitely understand how to replace SIM's. In my opinion anyways.

What is... "store"? In the 6+ years I spent in Silicon Valley, I entered a Walgreens every three months to pick up a prescription, and probably could've dispensed with that if I'd taken half an hour to figure out my provider's online thing. Other than that and the rare emergency, everything else (yes, including groceries) was ordered online and delivered to my home. The only businesses I routinely entered were my wor…

You sound like a peasant. I have a Taskrabbit that goes online for me to switch my SIM.

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

#182

Post by lanaius »

Ntrails wrote: post #155
lanaius wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first successful MVNO in the US came only 3 years after the first successful MVNO in the UK and mobile number portability was put into law in 2003 for both the US and the UK. The additional benefit is that because mobile numbers and wired numbers share the same area code base in the US, US number portability is basically universal. I don't see the basis based upon your listed criteria for saying that the FCC care…

Slightly unrelated but I find the idea of a mobile phone sharing an area code with landlines utterly bewildering. A phone, that by definition has no fixed abode, is now tied to a location and subject to long distance charges based on that location (As it was explained to me in Canada at least).

In a time when mobile phones were scarce, putting them on a local area code ensures that a large portion of their usage (calling to and from landlines within a geographic space that actually IS limited) doesn't require additional long distance charges for everyone. These days it may seem like a quirk, but really what 20-year-old technology decision doesn't?

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

#183

Post by sanderjd »

runamok wrote: post #176
sanderjd wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 2 is converting to phones that don't cost $750! There are some great phones for less than $300 unsubsidized nowadays.

I'm all ears! Can you suggest some? I was thinking of grabbing the Nexus 5 for $350 or $400...

Yep, that one. The Moto G series is great too, though the G2 seems to be sold out.

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

#184

Post by colinbartlett »

WWKong wrote: post #165
colinbartlett wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

With a prepaid provider, I pay $50/month for unlimited internet, calling, and texting. There are no extra taxes or "recovery charges".

$750 + ($50 * 24) = $1950

Last I checked, AT&T was about $100/month. It also charges a $36 "upgrade fee".

$36 + $200 + ($100 * 24) = $2636

That also assumes you upgrade immediately after paying your 24th month of service. Otherwise, tack on $50 overpayment for every month you wait to upgrade.

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

#185

Post by scholia »

francuzz wrote: post #164
scholia wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is true. The standard sim, when clipped, works in two of my smartphones....

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

#186

Post by WWKong »

colinbartlett wrote: post #184
WWKong wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

With a prepaid provider, I pay $50/month for unlimited internet, calling, and texting. There are no extra taxes or "recovery charges". $750 + ($50 * 24) = $1950 Last I checked, AT&T was about $100/month. It also charges a $36 "upgrade fee". $36 + $200 + ($100 * 24) = $2636 That also assumes you upgrade immediately after paying your 24th month of service. Otherwise, tack on $50 overpayment for every month you wait to…

Wow. My laziness/inertia is costing me real dollars.

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

#187

Post by brianpan »

josteink wrote: post #126
brianpan wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't even understand what a SIM is , let alone how to replace one. They probably can find their Settings app though.

In Europe, everyone I know who has a cellphone knows what a SIM is (even grannies), and they know this is the item connecting their phone to their service subscription. I guess to people from the US this may seem "foreign", but it's really simple and it really works.

Exactly, I was speaking from a US perspective. The historical reason for this is in Europe, interoperability as you travel between countries was a priority, so a single European protocol (GSM) with a removable, interchangeable SIM developed.

In America, competition/free market was the priority so the result was many non-compatible digital protocols (CDMA/TDMA/Nextel/GSM). In the US, if you're switching carriers, you are probably throwing away your phone and getting a new (subsidized) one from your new carrier. Even if you are moving from a GSM to another GSM carrier, because of the subsidies the old SIM is probably locked to your old carrier and it might be cheaper to get a new, subsidized one anyway.

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

#188

Post by monksy »

h4xar wrote: post #114
monksy wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paid ~$350 for a used S4 that I got activated on PagePlus. Why would I pay $80 a month to a big named carrier who keeps charging me rent on the phone after its paid off? (My plan is $39 for unlimited voice/text+1GB data, I used to do 500mb+1.2k min+3k texts for $29/mo).

Page Plus is truly amazing, especially now that they support 4G (but 3.5 Mbps throttle) as of a couple weeks ago. I just set someone up with a gently used S3 for ~$140, which if you compare specs to the S4, isn't much of a step down.

When did they get 4g?!

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

#189

Post by arandomafrican »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #85
scholia wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There a lots of dual-SIM phones and they've been available for a long time. http://www.phonearena.com/search/section/new-phones/term/dua... But maybe not in the US...

They are quite common in the developing world on low end phones. It is not a high-end feature, for sure.

It's not only on low-end phones.

Lots of people (in all the economic brackets) keep multiple phones numbers in the develloping world..

Some because it's usually cheaper to call within a carrier so they use a certain line to call certain numbers. Some to be reached more easily (for the same reason as above). Some because there's no number portability and they want to keep their old number while they want to use a new one for whatever reason. Some because networks can be unreliable. Some because they'll give separate numbers to separate people (Pro/Personnal , wife/mistress, anybody/VIP).

And since most people are on prepaid, there's little to no cost to having multiples lines.

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

#190

Post by iamadeveloper »

defen wrote: post #26
sp332 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MVNOs still pay bulk data fees to real MNOs. And their traffic gets lower priority on the network. So the only current operators they could challenge is other MVNOs.

Yeah, I was imagining a situation where with "a little more software" Apple products could automatically detect which networks are available, their relative speeds, etc, and automatically use the right one all the time. And they could buy in sufficiently large bulk to get a good deal on the data rates.

A lot of devices in the M2M communications world already perform operations similar to this with available networks. Alongside use various weighting metrics regarding such as network strength and bandwidth cost to determine which one to use.
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