Anyone using an unlocked iPhone4/4S with more than one SIM?

[VirtualRain]

What's the ritual you go through to swap SIM's?

With my new factory unlocked 4S (Canada) I'm using both a Fido (personal) and Telus (Work) SIM in my phone and swap them once or twice a week. I seem to have to turn WiFi off when changing SIM's otherwise I get "No Service".

 

[thelookingglass]

What's the ritual you go through to swap SIM's?

With my new factory unlocked 4S (Canada) I'm using both a Fido (personal) and Telus (Work) SIM in my phone and swap them once or twice a week. I seem to have to turn WiFi off when changing SIM's otherwise I get "No Service".

What's my ritual? Remove SIM, insert different SIM. Just works. Don't even have to turn the phone off, reset, or anything like that. And I have four SIMs on three different carriers in three different countries. You may want to speak to your carrier.

 

[heyloo]

What's my ritual? Remove SIM, insert different SIM. Just works. Don't even have to turn the phone off, reset, or anything like that. And I have four SIMs on three different carriers in three different countries. You may want to speak to your carrier.

Same here. I'm able to just swap the SIM out. It just takes a little while (20-30 secs max, maybe?) for it to get the phone registered to the new network but it gets signal soon enough.

 

[KPOM]

Since the original iPhone, the SIM has been hot-swappable. What I notice, though, is that it seems to cycle faster if I put the phone in and out of airplane mode when swapping, at least between SIMs of different carriers.

 

[Daveoc64]

I've noticed that sometimes the iPhone doesn't pick up on the SIM change unless you put it in Airplane Mode and then take it out again.

 

[VirtualRain]

What's my ritual? Remove SIM, insert different SIM. Just works. Don't even have to turn the phone off, reset, or anything like that. And I have four SIMs on three different carriers in three different countries. You may want to speak to your carrier.

Same here. I'm able to just swap the SIM out. It just takes a little while (20-30 secs max, maybe?) for it to get the phone registered to the new network but it gets signal soon enough.

Since the original iPhone, the SIM has been hot-swappable. What I notice, though, is that it seems to cycle faster if I put the phone in and out of airplane mode when swapping, at least between SIMs of different carriers.

Hmm... This is interesting... I didn't know you could hot-swap SIM's like that. As far as I knew, you need to power off the device so the phone can send a signal to the network effectively saying this # (SIM) is off the grid. If you just remove the SIM, I don't think this happens properly and I'm not sure what effect it will have on people trying to dial the # for the removed SIM.

In my case, before I swap SIM's I setup call forwarding to my other #. Perhaps this complicates things but it ensures I get all my calls regardless of what number people dial. I gather you guys aren't doing this when you swap SIM's? What do people get when they dial the # for the removed SIM?

I've noticed that sometimes the iPhone doesn't pick up on the SIM change unless you put it in Airplane Mode and then take it out again.

This is somewhat consistent with what I've found... as Airplane mode is a super-set of turning WiFi off, you may find that just turning WiFi off provides the same effect.

 

[gottafly]

don't you have to change the APN when swapping sims?

I have to install an APN each time we go to Costa Rica to gain local access on ICE.

Maybe that's just the carrier and they are not all like that?

 

[Daveoc64]

Hmm... This is interesting... I didn't know you could hot-swap SIM's like that. As far as I knew, you need to power off the device so the phone can send a signal to the network effectively saying this # (SIM) is off the grid. If you just remove the SIM, I don't think this happens properly and I'm not sure what effect it will have on people trying to dial the # for the removed SIM.

The network will easily be able to cope with this.

It would be the equivalent of you leaving network coverage (how would it notify the network you were unavailable then?) or the battery running out.

When the network needs to deliver a call or SMS to you, it'll attempt to do so at the last known location for you.

If it can't do that, it simply assumes you're unavailable for whatever reason. If you have set the phone to divert to another number (including Voicemail), it'll do that, or if there's no redirect in place it'll send the network's unavailable tone or message.

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don't you have to change the APN when swapping sims?

I have to install an APN each time we go to Costa Rica to gain local access on ICE.

Maybe that's just the carrier and they are not all like that?

Here in the UK the 5 main carriers (O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3) all sell the iPhone, so the iPhone seems to pick up the APN settings automatically when I switch SIM.