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3:22 pm
May 17, 2010
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Some technical questions about SO SIM cards.
When I have my SO SIM in my phone and turn on my phone I see 'Speakout' on the opening screen.
Is this because the phone has recognized the Speakout card on start up, or because the phone has communicated with a local cell tower, or both?
When I put in an unactivated Rogers SIM card I see a different message.
It says something along the lines of 'limited usage'.
Again, is this because the phone has recognized the Rogers card and its 'limited use' status on start up, or because the phone has communicated with a local cell tower, or both?
A newbie still working out the kinks.
TIA
7:06 pm
October 14, 2008
Offline
Both. When a card is properly activated, the phone will recognize the card, and correspond to the tower which network it is supposed to be on.
When you get an unactivated card, you will see the message you state, or "Unregistered SIM card", or something similar, because the phone "asks" that network if it's ok for the sim card to access it. If the sim card is not activated, and not registered to the particular network, the phone can not allow access, except for 911 calls.
That's why some phones allow the option to register on different networks.
7:36 pm
May 17, 2010
Offline
iamdrumming said:
Both. When a card is properly activated, the phone will recognize the card, and correspond to the tower which network it is supposed to be on.
OK thanks IAD.
Now I don't know what happened to my other post I made after this one?
It was a post on WiFi questions.
I'll ask one now.
Can you operate your SO cellphone using WiFi and not have the phone contact the cell network at all? When I use WiFi with my SO SIM in the phone I see network activity. When I use WiFi without my SO SIM in the phone, I don't see any network activity.
8:38 pm
July 12, 2009
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The other reason SIM cards show as "Limited Usage" or "SOS Only" is if your SIM card has expired or you don't have any paid time on it.
Whether or not you can turn off the wireless network depends on the phone.
Most Blackberries have separate enable checkboxes for each of the Cell Radio, Bluetooth, and wifi (if your particular blackberry has wifi and/or Bluetooth)
I just checked a couple of Nokia phones that were within easy reach -- and neither had an easy to find way to turn off the cell radio. However those phones will boot to "Offline Mode" with no SIM card, and can be used as music players or wifi browsing devices in Offline Mode.
iPhones call it "Airplane Mode" when you turn off the cell service and use the phone as an expensive iPod.
I'm wondering why you would buy a phone, activate the cellular service and then want to turn off the phone. The phone connects to a service provider so it can be used as a phone. If you have a SO SIM with paid time on it and were able to turn off the connection to the SO service, you can't call anyone and no one can call you. It is a phone after all. The fact that the phone is communicating with the tower is how the system is able to make and receive calls. You don't pay for time you are connected to the system, you pay for time you are using either the voice, text, or browsing function over that connection.
If you want a device that only connects to the Internet using wifi, there are much better devices than most cell phones that cost less money. PDAs are available in many forms including the iPod, as are larger devices like netbooks and iPads.
To know if your phone can be used with the cell radio turned off and wifi turned on, you will need to be very specific about which make and model of phone you are using. If you bought it new, the manual that came with it might answer your questions. If the manual isn't that good, and you have the make and model of the phone, you can use Google and likely find all sorts of information about your exact phone.
Since no one here knows what phone you are using, we can only answer in very general terms.
I have answered your post in two different threads -- asking the same question twice doesn't usually get two different answers.
In answer to your last question in the other thread: if you can't access the page using wifi, it is likely because you have the phone set to browse using the cell service. As I said above -- it is a phone and the default settings will be to use it as a phone. The warning that it will "likely cost you money to do this" should be considered a fairly strong clue that the phone isn't trying to connect by wifi.
The phone needs to be set up properly to access the internet whether by the cell service (if you have paid for a browsing plan) or by wifi. It can't read your mind -- you have to tell it what you want it to do in the settings. Unfortunately if you look through dozens of threads and posts in this forum you will see that the settings for browsing are not always straightforward and are extremely dependent on the exact make and model of your phone.
