Tag Archives: Verizon

TRAVEL TECH: Dual-SIM cell phones

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If you travel the world — or plan to — this is what your future looks like for handheld communications.

Nerd. Freak. Gadget geek. Call me whatever, but I’m always on the lookout for something new to make the traveler’s life easier.

The dual-SIM cell phone definitely falls into that category.

(The one shown here is the Samsung C3222 quad-band dual-SIM mobile phone. For purposes of illustration only.)

Odds are you already know about SIM cards and mobile phones, especially if you’re a regular IBIT reader.

SIM cards are actually the computer chip that contains your phone number and usable minutes on cell phones that run on GSM operating systems.

(This differs from phones that run on CDMA technology that lock you in to a single provider — like, say, Verizon Wireless in the United States. Most of the world’s cell phones are GSM-based. The only big CDMA users are us and China.)

GSM phones let you swap out SIM cards anytime you like. So if you have a GSM-based phone in the United States and you’re traveling abroad, no need to buy a different phone just to use in a different country.

Just take out your US-based SIM card, buy a cheap local SIM card at your destination and slide it in. Instantly, you have a local phone in a foreign country, complete with your own phone number. When you go home, switch back. Pretty cool, huh?

But as always with technology, there’s always somebody out there asking, “What if?”

As in, “What if you could make a cell phone that could hold two different SIM cards at the same time?”

You ask, technology answers. Enter the dual-SIM cell phone.

Simply put, it’s a cell phone with two SIM card slots, enabling you to install two different SIM cards from two different cell service providers at the same time.

Now, you’ve got one phone with two different phone numbers, two different providers, that works in two different countries. No more cracking the thing open, changing SIM cards and having to reboot the phone after you close it up again.

Just turn it on and you’re good to go. One’s in use; the other’s on standby, which is why these devices also are known as standby dual-SIM phones.

Switching between them is as easy as pushing a few buttons on your phone. Sounds lovely, does it not?

But we’re just warming up here.

The first generation of dual-SIM phones started coming out a decade or so ago outside the United States (you Verizon users, feel free to start gnashing your teeth now), and users in Europe and Asia have enjoyed them for years.

But as those of us old enough to remember floppy drives can tell you, technology not only doesn’t stand still, it doesn’t even take coffee breaks.

Which is why we’re now seeing something out there called active dual-SIM cell phones.

Which means both your SIM cards, each on its own plan and with its own phone number,are working in your one phone at the same time.

Don’t get comfortable yet. We’re not done.

Nowadays, you can even find triple-SIM card phones. Yep, one phone, three different SIM cards. Simultaneously.

You almost need a calculator to comprehend the amount of flexibility this gives you:

  • A single phone that works in two or even three different countries, locally.
  • A single phone that can work off multiple calling plans from the same provider, if you choose.
  • Run 2G, 3G or possibly even 4G cell phone networks off the same phone, at the same time.
  • Simultaneously make/receive phone calls while listening to music, cruising the Internet or doing something else.
  • Your own conference calls with multiple callers across multiple cell networks, at the same time.

When you look at all the possibilities, the mind reels.

As with anything else in life, there are tradeoffs. The big tradeoff with dual-SIM cell phones is battery life. It goes down substantially, by a third or more.

So far, I’ve seen dual-SIM phones on sale online for about $80. And those were quad-band phones, which means they work on all four GSM frequencies — which means they should work just about any place on planet Earth where there’s at least one cell phone tower within range.

The key, of course, is that it be an unlocked phone, not electronically chained to Verizon or any other mobile phone service provider.

The shorter battery life is potentially a major pain inthe Southern Hemisphere, so to speak — especially if you’re a long way from home. But when you consider all the freedom, power and control that they give you, it just might be worth it.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
CELL PHONES 2: The two-phone solution
CELL PHONES 1:

TRAVEL PHONE: A new development

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My Blackberry Storm from Verizon, the bane of my digital existence for the last two years, may get a wholly unexpected resurrection in the most unlikely of places.

Okay, so I bit the bullet and reluctantly bought a new Blackberry Bold, re-upping with Verizon in the process for another two years. After some research, I decided not to jump on Verizon’s initial offering of the iPhone.

I did that two years ago with the Blackberry Storm (pictured here)…and no more need be said about that.

You IBIT regulars out there know all about the Storm’s spectacular FAIL in Paris, and no more need be said about that, either.

But then, a funny thing happened on my way to drop the Storm into the nearest landfill.

For months, I’ve been on the hunt for a travel phone, a relatively cheap unlocked second phone that allows me to change SIM cards at will and effectively have a local cell phone wherever I am in the world.

There are a lot of worthy candidates out there, too, especially from Nokia and Samsung.

Meanwhile, in perusing the Web for info on my new Blackberry Bold, I come across sites offering to unlock my old Verizon Storm. I found posts on Blackberry forums from folks who said they’d used their Storms successfully around the world after getting them unlocked.

Even more important to me, I heard from some of you IBIT friends out there, telling me about the success you’ve had with the Storm once you got it unlocked.

That led me to call up the specifications on the Storm. Lo and behold! When you set it in 2G mode, it runs on GSM, the operating cell phone system used across most of the planet.

Not only that, but it’s a quad-band phone, using all four GSM frequencies. Which means, once it’s unlocked, this phone should be able to work anywhere.

Verizon is renowned for taking a dim view of people who unlock Veriuzon phones without their blessing, but since I already have a new Bold that will stay locked to their service, I doubt they’ll care much what I do with my old phone.

Could it be that this touch-screen terror device could actually redeem itself once it’s digitally detached from Verizon? Could it be that the travel phone I’ve been looking for all this time is already on my desk?

I’m about to find out — and believe me, I never thought I’d say this:

When I land in West Africa a week from now, the Blackberry Storm will be with me. Unlocked.

I’ll grab a SIM card somewhere in Senegal or in the Gambia and see what happens. If it works, I’ll be one very happy traveler.

And if it doesn’t? I’m sure the Gambia also has landfills.

CELL PHONES 2: The Two-Phone Solution

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For better — and possibly worse — I’m becoming a two-fisted phone user.

Went back to Verizon to return this dead Blackberry Storm for the fourth time in two years. Or maybe the fifth. I’ve lost both track and patience.

After having been stranded by the Storm in Paris, I am officially done with this thing.

This might seem like a vanity thing — until you have some sort of emergency, large or small. And I’ve got a major trip to West Africa coming up.

It would be great if there were one cell phone that worked equally well, and at a decent rate, everywhere in the world. I’m convinced that no such animal exists.

So, I’ve decided on a two-phone solution.

The phone I’ll use here in the United States is this shiny new Blackberry Bold. It’s got a SIM card in it which Verizon claims I can activate to use overseas, and swap out when I need to.

Of course, they said the same thing at first about the Storm, which sucketh mightily. However, I’ve had good reports from Bold users out there. So take note, I’m trusting you guys!

I may or may not activate the Bold’s Verizon SIM card when I travel. Either way, it’ll purely be a backup overseas.

For travel outside the country, the solution is simpler — an inexpensive, unlocked Nokia phone.

Technically, it may not be necessary to do this, but when it comes to international calling, I don’t trust Verizon anymore.

The older Nokia 1100s have become almost an international standard for basic cell phones, especially in developing countries, and IBIT readers have commended them to me several times. Nokia no longer makes them, but they’re popular, used, and still sold, the world over.

They’re not smartphones, so you won’t be able to do much beyond talk and text, but that’s fine. Anything beyond that, the laptop can handle.

Besides, if I’m checking email in front of the Egyptian pyramids or surfing the Web under the Eiffel Tower, there’s something seriously wrong…with me.

(And yes, I know there are people who actually do things like that. Poor souls.)

Naturally, here are pricier smartphone versions. They’re quad-band phones, meaning they use all the four GSM frequencies — 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 megahertz.

In theory, a quad-band phone should be good to go from just about anywhere on the planet.

In theory. If I sound skeptical, it’s because I’ve been dealing with the Blackberry Storm for two years. Still, if somebody out there makes a no-frills quad-band phone, I’m all ears…and fat fingers. Otherwise, it’s basic Nokia for The Kid here.

So that’s the gameplan. We’ll see what happens.

CELL PHONES 1: In search of travelers’ mobiles

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First of an occasional series

I don’t know what works — but after getting stranded in a Paris airport, I know what doesn’t.

We all spend our lives looking for something, a never-ending search for perfection.

I spent my grade-school days in a quest for the perfect jacket, the perfect tennis shoes, and eventually, the perfect girlfriend.

Unfortunately for me, most of the girls were looking for the perfect boyfriend, which complicated my efforts greatly.

As a journalist, I quested after the perfect pen and later, the perfect camera (that one’s still ongoing, by the way).

Now, I have a new search: the perfect cell phone for international travel.

I want something that lets me easily “roam,” smoothly call from anywhere to anywhere, something that could handle texts, email and Web connections as smoothly abroad as it does at home, all without breaking the proverbial bank.

I may be from the last generation that can be separated from his cell phone longer than 30 seconds without going into withdrawal, but there are times that you need to communicate with others abroad, if only because Murphy’s Law knows no bounds…and respects no borders.

At the same time, phone booths are becoming increasingly scarce around the world. (Poor Superman…where does he go now to change clothes?)

So far, my search for the ideal travel phone has been a huge disappointment. If past results are any indication, I might have better luck finding the Holy Grail, or an honest politician. (My odds are probably better with the grail. But I digress.)

NATIONAL PRIDE TRUMPS COMMON SENSE?
Part of this comes down to a combination of cell phone technology and national chauvinism.

While most of the world has settled on a cell phone technology called GSM, the cell phone company with the largest and most reliable network, Verizon, opted for something called CDMA.

GSM was developed in Europe, so obviously we couldn’t standardize on that, right? Oh, no!

Which means that the vast majority of Verizon phones become null and void as soon as you leave North America.

Enter Verizon’s Blackberry Storm, which was supposed to put an end to all that.

A WORLD OF TROUBLE
Verizon billed it as a “world phone,” a dual-system smartphone that could run on either GSM or CDMA, making it functional just about anywhere. Problem solved, I thought as I boarded a flight to Paris.

Prior to leaving, I review the international settings multiple times with the smiling young helpers in the Verizon store, fully charge up the battery, and then for good measure, turn off the device as we take off from LAX.

Arriving in Paris ten hours later, the shuttle driver who’s supposed to pick us up (and whose company has already been paid) is nowhere to be found. But I am not concerned. I’ll just call him up on my all-world Blackberry Storm and find out what’s up.

Excuse me while I whip this out…

Does the term “dead as a dodo” mean anything to you?

The phone has somehow managed to discharge the battery completely during the flight, despite the fact that the phone had been switched off the entire time. But I’m still not concerned. I’ll just connect the phone into a handy electric outlet and let it pick up enough “juice” to let me make a couple of phone calls.

About 20 minutes later, the battery is strong enough for the phone to work. I step outside the terminal to make sure I’ve got a strong connection and start to dial.

Nothing. No signal of any kind. Nothing going out, nothing coming in. In the immortal words of Star Trek, “It’s dead, Jim.”

Now, I am concerned. I’m also stranded in CDG, a long way from central Paris. A sympathetic traveler’s aid clerk calls the shuttle company for me on his cell phone.

Which works.

LE HOOPTEE?
He learns that the shuttle driver apparently had run into bad traffic on the freeway leading to the airport, said whatever is the French equivalent of “Trick it!,” then turned around and went home, or wherever it is that errant Parisian shuttle drivers go.

He may or may not have tried to reach me on my Blackberry Storm, now reduced to the status of a drastically overpriced paperweight.

Three hours later, we rattle and wheeze into Paris in a renegade taxi driven by an emigre from the Ivory Coast. His battered little Renault is composed of thousands of individual parts, large and small, most of which seem determined to separate from one another at any speed over 35 miles per hour.

I don’t know the French word for “hooptee,” but I can say with absolute assurance that I’ve ridden in one.

In fairness, one cannot attribute all of this purely to the failings of the Storm as a “world phone,” since the Storm is widely considered to be a failure in general. I’ve had to exchange it at least three times that I can recall, possibly four, and the current one is pretty buggy, as well.

At this point, I’m not even sure it makes a decent paperweight.

So I’m setting out on a great adventure — not to find truth, enlightenment or happiness, but a cell phone that works equally well in Paris, France and Paris, TX.

If you’ve got any nominees in mind, drop me an email at greg@imblacknitravel.com and tell me why you think it’ll work, especially if you’ve already used it overseas. I’ll be back from time to time to share with you what I learn.

Meanwhile, anybody seen a grail around here lately…?