Text 229, 83 rader
Skriven 2004-07-31 08:27:24 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
    Kommentar till text 191 av Peter Karlsson (2:204/254.222)
Ärende: Fido on the move via cell phone.
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Peter Karlsson wrote to Robert Bashe on Saturday July 31 2004 at 00:25:

RB>> Upgrade?

PK> Yeah. I'm waiting for my new SIM card from Telenor as we speak,
PK> because I need support for their "mobile shopping" technology...

Interesting... never heard anything like this until now, but obviously it's
possible. Generally, at least in my experience in Germany, you have to buy a
new phone to get additional features.

RB>> (the flash RAMs are intentionally made incompatible from model to
RB>> model to prevent a cheap phone from being upgraded to a more
RB>> expensive one).

PK> Well, there are most often hardware differences.

That's what I meant. One model uses a 512 KB flash RAM for the firmware, the
next a 1 MB flash RAM, with firmware just a trifle larger than 512 KB.

PK> Having said that, I know that at least some Nokia models have
PK> interchangible firmware (and there was one small home-grown company
PK> here in Norway which offered to flash people's phones with the "wrong"
PK> (and hacked) firmware to gain new features; I think Nokia go them shut
PK> down).

I know exactly what you mean, and was actually referring to Nokia with the
above comment. But stuff like that doesn't come from any one source... check
the Internet thoroughly enough, and you'll find it somewhere for download,
including software. All you need is the cables to connect the handset to the
PC. And of course, every model has different connectors - a logical step to
make such hankey-pankey more difficult (but not impossible). The trick with the
different flash RAMs, however, very effectively prevents such "upgrades".
Although there are even people who will replace the flash RAMs and _then_
upgrade, more or less as a challenge. Where there's a will, there's a way.

RB>> How would you lose the SIM card in a mobile phone without losing the
RB>> phone too?

PK> SIM cards are easy to lose if you have more than one, which isn't
PK> uncommon...

Of course that's right, but the situations are apparently different in Germany
and Norway. Here it's quite unusual to have more than the SIM card in your
handset.

PK> I currently have three active subscriptions, each with its own SIM
PK> card--my regular card, a pre-paid I usually lend to my parents when
PK> they visit (since using their Swedish cards to call me while inside
PK> Norway is expensive), and a Swedish pre-paid which I use when I visit
PK> Sweden.

Interesting idea, but apparently the practicality varies from country to
country. What I mean is that the credit on your prepaid cards "expires"
(non-refundably) after a certain period of time. In Germany up to about 18
months, depending on the amount of money you "deposit", and in France in only a
few weeks (unless things have changed since 2003, when I last checked). This
makes it impractical to keep prepaid cards inactive for longer periods. This
may be different in Scandanavia... I don't know the situation except in Germany
and France.

RB>> The prepaid packages here often try to do that - the phone's firmware
RB>> is set so that it only accepts the SIM card of a specific provider,
RB>> the one that subsidizes the cost of the phone -

PK> Actually, it is locked to the network, which is quite interesting.
PK> Here in Norway there are two networks (plus a local one that only
PK> covers Oslo), but there are several dozens of providers. If your phone
PK> is locked to one network, you can still use it with any provider that
PK> uses that particular network. And if you're lucky, your preferred
PK> provider can offer subscriptions for both networks (like mine do)...
PK> :-)

I think that's also the case in Germany, but each provider (four of them at the
moment, plus resellers) has its own network. The smaller ones (two of them)
have agreements with the others to use their networks, I believe, since
otherwise the smaller providers would not be able to survive, but otherwise
there's no overlap.

Cheers, Bob

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