Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 78

multiple telcos on visorphone?

So I got my visorphone on ebay and moved the SIM card from my Nokia into it and it works great. I have Cingular service. Now I have a job that travels me around the state. And this one location I'm at I get crappy signal (no signal indoors) from Cingular. So I see this menu item in the VP software "select network". I click it and a dialog comes up "Searching for available networks..." Then another that lists my Cingular service.

So I'm wondering, is it possible to contract with another carrier, say US Cellular or AT&T which I know gives good service to this site? And then switch networks when I go from one area to another? To me that's what I'm thinking this menu option is for. But I could be wrong.

If I'm right, has anyone done this? How do I do it?

Option 2 is to just drop the Cingular service and select AT&T which hopefully will work better than Cingular. Is this option doable? I know Handspring only sells the VP with Cingular service in my area... but a SIM is a SIM right? Can any carrier latch onto my SIM and become the carrier for it? How does that all work?

THank you!

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Posts: 123

You can't. Each network will supply you with one SIM Card. The SIM Card is for that network operator only.

When you go to the Select Network, and choose one that is not the original one, then you're activating ROAMING. If you do so, you'll pay the extra applied to this service.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 78

switching off cingular?

OK. That makes sense. So, is it possible for me to switch to a different vendor from Cingular? Can I pick US Celluar, Sprint, or AT&T? Will they provide me with a new SIM or can they reprogram the one I have remotely (as Cingular did when I first signed on with them)?

Thanks!

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Posts: 123

They'll supply you with a new SIM card.

Of course, if you bought the VP with a contract, you're required to pay the original telco until the contract is finished. There's nothing that prevent you to use the VP with another SIM card, though.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 158

You could conceivably switch between providers, if you got them to sell you a card without a phone, something most resellers won't do. Plus, your choice is a lot more limited than you realize. The VisorPhone only supports GSM providers. So in the U.S. you're talking about VoiceStream, Cingular and perhaps a handful of much smaller outfits. You're very unlikely to have a choice in any given area.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK
Posts: 92

The choice of providers is really most useful when you're roaming; for example, when you take your VisorPhone to Berlin, you'll have a choice of two networks that you can use, and depending on the roaming arrangements with your home phone company, it may be cheaper to use one rather than the other.

For example, even though I supposedly have a 'flat rate' deal when roaming, I can see from the bill I just received that D1 charges per minute, with a 51 pence for a two second call, where I hung up on getting voicemail. Mannesman D2 charges by the second, costing only 8.5 pence for an 8 second call to the same destination.

In normal day to day use, you won't need to use the network selection menu, and in most countries, there aren't roaming agreements between the different operators, since the ones with bigger networks have nothing to gain by allowing those with poor coverage to piggy back on them.

Nigel.