Re: [tlug] [OT] Short-term cell phone access (SIM card, etc.)

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

But just over a year ago, I had a Japanese phone and an overseas (Hong

Kong) phone and took the SIM cards and switched them "for fun".  And
both phones rejected them.  The whole LCD panel on the phone was
blinking...I thought it was going to explode.  :-)  I shut it down and
switched the cards back and (AFAIK) there was no permanent damage.

Incidentally, the HK phone was a Sony Xperia...  :-P

Thanks for this.  I always like to hear of practical real-world experience with hardware, etc!

 

As for the 3 people:

> A: ".... but usually ST gets his phone unlocked when he travels and then
> switches his SIM card out for an international one so that calls and texts
> are cheaper."

A -- Neither of the phones I tried were unlocked so maybe A is on to
something.  But if the Japanese SIMs are locked, then isn't that going
to cause a problem?

B -- Wi-Fi is hard to find and if you find it, you have to be a
customer of some Internet company first and log in with their user
name / password.

I think things were getting better and I think Docomo or someone was
planning to open up their phones?  So maybe my experience is getting
out of date.

I'll run this by them and hopefully we'll get something worked out!

There's always payphones, of course...maybe I'm just too "old school"!  :-)

I'm not sure they are aware of voice transmission-only devices!  "What?  You mean you can *talk* into this thing?!  But why would I want to do that?" ;)

But seriously, pay phones are getting hard to find!

Thanks for the feedback!

Lyle