Cloning iPhone sim to use in a iPad 3G

[Nykwil]

Anyone thought about this? Sim Cloning your iPhone sim, shaving it down, and using it in an iPad 3G.

The device is unlocked, would save you the extra data fees a month.

Or at least come with some kind of micro-sim tray for your iphone(like the turbosim devices) so you can swap your sim between your devices.

Granted, yes you can tether your ipad to your iPhone with mywi.

Any thoughts?

 

[normwood]

Anyone thought about this? Sim Cloning your iPhone sim, shaving it down, and using it in an iPad 3G.

The device is unlocked, would save you the extra data fees a month.

Or at least come with some kind of micro-sim tray for your iphone(like the turbosim devices) so you can swap your sim between your devices.

Granted, yes you can tether your ipad to your iPhone with mywi.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like stealing!

Steve

 

[Nykwil]

Sounds like stealing!

Steve

It's not really stealing if you're already paying for the service on your phone.

But I guess it could come off as that way.

But, whats the difference from tethering to your iphone?

I'm not condoning stealing someone else's sim and I can understand it may come off that way.

 

[avaloncourt]

Modern cellular networks have checks to verify if duplicate SIMs exist on the network. One of the two devices would need to be off. The carrier will also know if the equipment changed. If you take your iPhone SIM and put it in a Blackberry long enough your AT&T account page phone icon will change to a Blackberry.

AT&T doesn't allow tethering to the iPhone.

 

[Nykwil]

Modern cellular networks have checks to verify if duplicate SIMs exist on the network. The carrier will also know if the equipment changed. If you take your iPhone SIM and put it in a Blackberry long enough your AT&T account page phone icon will change to a Blackberry.

Ah yes, i forgot about this. this is true.

I remember taking my sim out of my iphone 3g and putting it into a 3gs and att changed my device on my account page.

guess i'll stick to tethering lol

 

[Niiro13]

It's not really stealing if you're already paying for the service on your phone.

But I guess it could come off as that way.

But, whats the difference from tethering to your iphone?

I'm not condoning stealing someone else's sim and I can understand it may come off that way.

Yes it is. You're paying for the service on your phone. The iPad is not your phone. Therefore, you did not pay for the service for your iPad.

The difference is, when you tether your smart phone, you pay an extra $15/$30 (first is for blackberry, second is for other smart phones). Tethering your USA-bought iPhone on AT&T in the USA is technically stealing because AT&T never came out with a way to officially tether. If they do, they're probably gonna charge just like all their other smart phones.

 

[sapporobaby]

Modern cellular networks have checks to verify if duplicate SIMs exist on the network. One of the two devices would need to be off. The carrier will also know if the equipment changed. If you take your iPhone SIM and put it in a Blackberry long enough your AT&T account page phone icon will change to a Blackberry.

AT&T doesn't allow tethering to the iPhone.

Is avaloncourt correct? Survey says: "NO!!!!".

It depends entirely on the operator. I am using 2 sim cards on the same data plan because my operator allows it. It is called DUAL SIM. One data plan, 2 sim cards. AT&T is screwing you by making you pay for everything.

The technical support at my operator even told me how to make a MicroSim to use in my 3G iPad when it comes out.

 

[Niiro13]

Actually, avaloncourt is indeed correct and you are too. All he said was say that cell phone carriers can tell if you are using duplicate SIM cards. Didn't even say whether AT&T allows it or not.

 

[sapporobaby]

Actually, avaloncourt is indeed correct and you are too. All he said was say that cell phone carriers can tell if you are using duplicate SIM cards. Didn't even say whether AT&T allows it or not.

Actually I was talking about this part of the statement: "One of the two devices would need to be off."

This is incorrect. AT&T is a weird case anyway. They are trying to squeeze blood from stones in a sense. Their practices are simply ridiculous.

 

[Nugget]

Actually I was talking about this part of the statement: "One of the two devices would need to be off." This is incorrect.

He's correct with that too.

AT&T is a weird case anyway. They are trying to squeeze blood from stones in a sense. Their practices are simply ridiculous.

Not weird at all. I'm not aware of any US mobile carrier that supports DUAL SIM. Your experiences in Finland aren't really relevant for us here in the US market.

 

[Niiro13]

This is incorrect. AT&T is a weird case anyway. They are trying to squeeze blood from stones in a sense. Their practices are simply ridiculous.

Yeah. Unfortunately I think it's with all US carriers. Just like how no US carrier has front-facing camera phones (at least that I've seen) because there's no US carrier with video calling (that I know).

 

[sapporobaby]

He's correct with that too.



Not weird at all. I'm not aware of any US mobile carrier that supports DUAL SIM. Your experiences in Finland aren't really relevant for us here in the US market.

Glad you brought this up. The point is, it not possible to implement. It is technically feasible. Finland is not the only country to allow DUAL SIM's, but it seems that AT&T will suck as much as they can until they simply cause customer fatigue. However as you said, it is not relevant. Glad the operators appreciate their customers a bit more.

 

[Niiro13]

lad the operators appreciate their customers a bit more.

Just how much appreciation do they need? If everyone with a data plan in the US Dual SIMed then bought an aircard, then the carriers might lose quite a bit of money.

 

[sapporobaby]

Just how much appreciation do they need? If everyone with a data plan in the US Dual SIMed then bought an aircard, then the carriers might lose quite a bit of money.

Hmmmm..... Interesting. http://www.joikuspot.com + an old Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, etc....= instant wifi solution. Joikuspot: €9. Aircard: €60 or more. The math is pretty easy. Not to mention only €10 a month for the data plan.

 

[Nugget]

Glad you brought this up. The point is, it not possible to implement. It is technically feasible. Finland is not the only country to allow DUAL SIM's, but it seems that AT&T will suck as much as they can until they simply cause customer fatigue. However as you said, it is not relevant. Glad the operators appreciate their customers a bit more.

No -- my point was that your snarky nitpicking was unhelpful and inaccurate.

avaloncourt's post was good advice and your apparent need to hijack the thread to air your AT&T grievances is not helpful or insightful. This is not an AT&T issue. It's a limitation which is common to all US mobile carriers.

 

[sapporobaby]

No -- my point was that your nitpicking was unhelpful and inaccurate.

avaloncourt's post was good advice and your need to turn this into a bash of AT&T is not helpful or insightful. This is not an AT&T issue. It's a limitation which is common to all US mobile carriers.

Okay. Strip AT&T completely out of the equation. The facts are part of avaloncourt's post was correct and another part was incorrect. That is not nitpicking. That is fact checking. There is no actual limitation but a failure to implement services that are commonplace elsewhere.

I yield the remainder of my time to your response.

 

[Nugget]

In the absence of carrier-supported DUAL SIM operation, the only workable path is to clone your SIM but make sure that only one device is powered on at a time. If you allow both devices to power on simultaneously, your carrier will be able to detect that you've got the cloned SIM.

avaloncourt was completely correct. Some people do take this approach if they want to use multiple devices on the same account and it's a fairly reliable solution with AT&T.

I doubt it's practical between an iPad and an iPhone due to the unusual billing arrangement on AT&T with Apple phones, but it's certainly viable in less novel scenarios. I used to routinely swap my iPhone SIM back into my old Nokia (which supported tethering) in order to get my laptop online and as far as I know AT&T never noticed, in part because only one device was ever online at the same time.

Survey says? I dunno, but we're not really helping.

 

[sapporobaby]

In the absence of carrier-supported DUAL SIM operation, the only workable path is to clone your SIM but make sure that only one device is powered on at a time. If you allow both devices to power on simultaneously, your carrier will be able to detect that you've got the cloned SIM.

avaloncourt was completely correct. Some people do take this approach if they want to use multiple devices on the same account and it's a fairly reliable solution with AT&T.

I doubt it's practical between an iPad and an iPhone due to the unusual billing arrangement on AT&T with Apple phones, but it's certainly viable in less novel scenarios. I used to routinely swap my iPhone SIM back into my old Nokia (which supported tethering) in order to get my laptop online and as far as I know AT&T never noticed, in part because only one device was ever online at the same time.

Survey says? I dunno, but we're not really helping.

I will admit that my service to the gov't has keep me away from the US for quite some time and I am not as familiar with some of the practices of US based carriers. The practices that they exhibit would not be tolerated by the subscriber base in other countries. What AT&T is doing is simply unfair, especially for the prices they charge for network access. I too use something similar to your solution but I use JoikuSpot. You might want to check it out and see if your old Nokia is supported. It has been a life saver while traveling. I grab up the sim cards to the countries I will be working in and off I go.

 

[Hmac]

Is avaloncourt correct? Survey says: "NO!!!!".

It depends entirely on the operator. I am using 2 sim cards on the same data plan because my operator allows it. It is called DUAL SIM. One data plan, 2 sim cards. AT&T is screwing you by making you pay for everything.

The technical support at my operator even told me how to make a MicroSim to use in my 3G iPad when it comes out.

Unless your mystery "operator" is AT&T, Avaloncourt is correct.

Judging the "fairness" of AT&T's policies by those of other countries is kind of pointless IMHO.

 

[Niiro13]

I will admit that my service to the gov't has keep me away from the US for quite some time and I am not as familiar with some of the practices of US based carriers. The practices that they exhibit would not be tolerated by the subscriber base in other countries. What AT&T is doing is simply unfair, especially for the prices they charge for network access. I too use something similar to your solution but I use JoikuSpot. You might want to check it out and see if your old Nokia is supported. It has been a life saver while traveling. I grab up the sim cards to the countries I will be working in and off I go.

I think for most subscribers in US, it's kinda the same attitude. But instead of uprising they just accept it and move on until Apple comes out with something then it's brought up again (like how the iPhone should have front-facing camera when no other phone in the US does). But yes, $60 a month with a theoretical 5 GB limit is just ridiculous. And that's just in country. Go international and you'll be looking at hundreds/thousands. Bad.

 

[ikmisje]

Modern cellular networks have checks to verify if duplicate SIMs exist on the network. One of the two devices would need to be off. The carrier will also know if the equipment changed. If you take your iPhone SIM and put it in a Blackberry long enough your AT&T account page phone icon will change to a Blackberry.

AT&T doesn't allow tethering to the iPhone.

i just had the tmobile dual sim cards, here in the netherlands, you can go to t-mobile shop and simply ask for it. 10 euro one time cost only for the sims.

of course, you can use one at a time. once i put one simcard in my mifi (dlink) device, i switch my iphone to airplane mode, so i can use it for my laptop. i donot know if the speed is limited by tmobile as its my iphone internet contract. max download speed i experienced was 250kb/s.

 

[Niiro13]

i just had the tmobile dual sim cards, here in the netherlands, you can go to t-mobile shop and simply ask for it. 10 euro.

of course, you can use one at a time. once i put one simcard in my mifi (dlink) device, i switch my iphone to airplane mode, so i can use it for my laptop. i donot know if the speed is limited by tmobile as its my iphone internet contract. max download speed i experienced was 250kb/s.

Yup. Same idea. It's faster to switch to airplane than to turn it off, though. Shame you can't use both at the same time (so you can at least receive calls).

Course there's always MiFi. Only problem with that is that you'll be browsing high quality youtube videos on a wi-fi tethered 3G plan which goes through an iPhone. Probably not that great.

 

[ikmisje]

Yup. Same idea. It's faster to switch to airplane than to turn it off, though. Shame you can't use both at the same time (so you can at least receive calls).

Course there's always MiFi. Only problem with that is that you'll be browsing high quality youtube videos on a wi-fi tethered 3G plan which goes through an iPhone. Probably not that great.

haha, i forward all the calls to my second phone when i need. (cant read sms in this case)

or you can switch the mifi to modem mode, so it works as a usb internet stick, in this case with the dlinksoftware you can see the missed call, send/receive sms, or forward your calls to another phone.

 

[jdee2wheels]

This seems like a ideal solution for me. If I got an ipad I'd be using it mostly on Wifi, but it would certainly be nice to have 3G available on occasion without spending the extra for a data plan.

Ideally, i'd clone my iphone sim to put it in my ipad, and keep my ipad on airplane mode with wifi enabled most of the time. If I ran into a situation where I wanted 3G on my ipad, I could put my iphone in airplane mode and then turn the airplane mode off on my ipad. Would this work using AT&T? Obviously they would be able to tell if you were using an ipad on their network, but I wonder if they would really do anything about it as long as you didn't have the sim card in the iphone trying to connect at the same time. Thoughts?

 

[meanieblue]

Where do we go from here?

I wonder what AT&T will do with tethering, etc. once there is a Verizon iPhone. Will the Verizon iPhone act as a 3G-to-WiFi hotspot, forcing AT&T to give customers what they've wanted for eons (and other devices have had for eons)?
Will AT&T adopt a "one-plan" for data between multiple registered AT&T devices (family with multiple iPhones and iPads)?

Sigh... Speculation...
Back to reality...