WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#41

Post by tom-lord » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 9:51 AM UTC

cr3ative wrote: post #29

Andrenid wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup way too many mentions of "free, without limits", considering: €10 per year but they say "no expiry". €.25 per photo (sent or received, I think) €.50 per video That's just for Zone 1. More than triple those prices if you're in Australia or any Zone 2 country.. and more than 6 times those prices if you're in Canada or any Zone 3 country.

I've dealt with a small amount of MVNO negotiations and this company has put many red flags up in my mind. It may be obvious to someone else, but I'd like to know how they detect a photo or video being sent, rather than text? WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, so they can't be proxying the data to the servers. Are they just guessing from the total data transfer seen from the subscriber? There's a lot of unanswered que…

Metadata doesn't get encrypted.

That question is, at least, fairly easy to answer.

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#42

Post by Sarkie » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 9:52 AM UTC

joosters wrote: post #21

I absolutely despise the weasel words that this site uses. It is full of outright lies and contradictions. Most misleadingly: All Sims make you chat. But this one for free and without limits. It's not free, it costs €10 for a year. Why then do they also claim 'it never expires' ? Why do they say that it has no limits, when the Rates page is full of limits? I despise such deliberately misleading text. These people are…

I enjoyed the About Us page.

`WhatSim is the stroke of genius of Manuel Zanella, founder and CEO of Zeromobile.`

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#43

Post by Freestyler_3 » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 9:52 AM UTC

Andrenid wrote: post #28

joosters wrote: post #21

I absolutely despise the weasel words that this site uses. It is full of outright lies and contradictions. Most misleadingly: All Sims make you chat. But this one for free and without limits. It's not free, it costs €10 for a year. Why then do they also claim 'it never expires' ? Why do they say that it has no limits, when the Rates page is full of limits? I despise such deliberately misleading text. These people are…

Yup way too many mentions of "free, without limits", considering: €10 per year but they say "no expiry". €.25 per photo (sent or received, I think) €.50 per video That's just for Zone 1. More than triple those prices if you're in Australia or any Zone 2 country.. and more than 6 times those prices if you're in Canada or any Zone 3 country.

They say: "You can chat with WhatsApp anywhere in the world absolutely free of charge"

Okay they do say chat, but for users chat means much more than just text chat. But... its not free of charge, indeed its 10$ a year. and the 5$ for 10 vids or 20 pics is rediculous.

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#44

Post by josch » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:01 AM UTC

So you need to use a different phone number than the one you usually use for WhatsApp? Then you wouldn't be linked to your friends anymore, right?

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#45

Post by Joona » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:01 AM UTC

72deluxe wrote: post #33

Joona wrote: post #6

A friend of mine is getting one, as she doesn't want to get roaming charges during her vacation, but still wants to talk to people on WhatsApp. Seems to solve this problem quite well. :)

She could get a 3 SIM if she's from the UK? "Feel at home" countries have the same freedom as being in the UK, so the £15 PAYG SIM (which you can stop using after a month) gives you 25GB data, unlimited texts and a large number of calls, even if you're in various countries in Europe, and even better, America. I will be looking to use one when I visit America later in the year.

That sounds very good (sadly she isn't from the UK), and seems like a good deal until the roaming regulations change.

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#46

Post by tom-lord » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:03 AM UTC

oscarhong wrote: post #10

Anywhere in the world but not Macau? http://www.whatsim.com/en/coverage

Nor in The Bahamas, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, ... (that's just the letters 'B' and 'C' - I gave up after that!)

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#47

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:03 AM UTC

davb wrote: post #40

72deluxe wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She could get a 3 SIM if she's from the UK? "Feel at home" countries have the same freedom as being in the UK, so the £15 PAYG SIM (which you can stop using after a month) gives you 25GB data, unlimited texts and a large number of calls, even if you're in various countries in Europe, and even better, America. I will be looking to use one when I visit America later in the year.

I've used Feel At Home quite extensively (more when it was still called 3 At Home) and it's fantastic. The two countries I visit most often, USA and Spain, have recently been added to the list. I'll be able to get rid of my international SIMs and cut out the logistics of having to swap then while travelling. Free data roaming is just about the best thing a network can offer customers who travel.

Glad to hear it works well, as I am currently with TMobile and was horrified by the prices for going to the USA. I may even switch to 3 for my "daily driver" phone.

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#48

Post by swah » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:04 AM UTC

nichtich wrote: post #31

Can I use other applications besides WhatsApp? No, WhatSim works only with WhatsApp. If this is the trend, then those quad-sim crappy phones I got from China will finally be useful! One for WhatsApp, one for netflix, one for phone, one for internet. Honestly I don't know who will ever use this.. Also, when I first read the title, I thought: cool, they implemented the WhatsApp protocol on a sim card, so feature phones…

My cell provider in Brazil just switched from limiting my bandwidth to cutting it when I exceed my daily quota (yeah 10mb).

The Moto G is an affordable, 5", dual-sim phone that sells for 200 USD here, no contract. That's 1/8 of an iPhone 6+ (here).

This could sell like crazy in my country (even more if one could also use Waze - make it the w-sim).

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#49

Post by fulafel » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:10 AM UTC

cr3ative wrote: post #29

Andrenid wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup way too many mentions of "free, without limits", considering: €10 per year but they say "no expiry". €.25 per photo (sent or received, I think) €.50 per video That's just for Zone 1. More than triple those prices if you're in Australia or any Zone 2 country.. and more than 6 times those prices if you're in Canada or any Zone 3 country.

I've dealt with a small amount of MVNO negotiations and this company has put many red flags up in my mind. It may be obvious to someone else, but I'd like to know how they detect a photo or video being sent, rather than text? WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, so they can't be proxying the data to the servers. Are they just guessing from the total data transfer seen from the subscriber? There's a lot of unanswered que…

Differentiating pictures and videos from chat traffic is likely an easy traffic analysis problem, unless WhatsApp are using deliberate countermeasures.

Re: WhatSim, a SIM Card for WhatsApp

#50

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 10:14 AM UTC

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #39

I understand what this is but I'm having a hard time understanding how it works. I understand that it is a sim that permits data-only connectivity for a large number of networks around the world. What I'm having difficulty with is understanding how the sim limits the user to using only whatsapp. Does the sim analyse network traffic content or endpoint to block non-whatsapp data? Is the whatsapp software supplied on t…

Presumably the SIM does nothing special, it just directs the data connection to an APN run by the operator (like all SIMs do). This operator has firewall rules that drop everything non-whatsapp.