Softbank and SIM cards.

[DaQue]

Anyone know if softbank Japanese phones have removable simm cards? Anyone think sprint might change to sing them now?

 

 

All hail our tyrant overlords!

[Feech]

I belive this might be what you are talking about..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removable_User_Identity_Module I remember when I first heard about these how I thought they might change the market here between Verizon and Sprint but nothing ever came of it. I swear carriers make more work for themselves or they collude with each other to keep the customers they have and fight against each other to get new subscribers that are up for grabs

[MacinJosh]

Softbank uses GSM technology for their 2G/3G network in Japan. They use the standard SIM tech that other GSM carriers use. KDDI is the only carrier in Japan to use CDMA tech.

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_of_the_Asia_Pacific_region#Japan

[WiWavelength]

Softbank uses GSM technology for their 2G/3G network in Japan.

 

Be careful. That is not accurate. There has never been any GSM in Japan. Japan's 2G standards were PDC and cdmaOne, its 3G standards W-CDMA/HSPA and CDMA1X/EV-DO.

 

AJ

[MacinJosh]

Be careful. That is not accurate. There has never been any GSM in Japan. Japan's 2G standards were PDC and cdmaOne, its 3G standards W-CDMA/HSPA and CDMA1X/EV-DO.

 

AJ

 

Sorry, you are right. I missed that when I was looking on that table.

[WiWavelength]

A few months ago, I posed a theory why Sprint has not utilized removable SIMs in its early LTE devices but plans to do so in the future. Sprint is waiting for the iDEN sunset. iDEN handsets contain removable SIMs. Sprint does not want iDEN users hot swapping their SIMs into LTE devices.

 

AJ

[jefbal99]

A few months ago, I posed a theory why Sprint has not utilized removable SIMs in its early LTE devices but plans to do so in the future. Sprint is waiting for the iDEN sunset. iDEN handsets contain removable SIMs. Sprint does not want iDEN users hot swapping their SIMs into LTE devices.

 

AJ

 

I never considered that, great thought

[MacinJosh]

A few months ago, I posed a theory why Sprint has not utilized removable SIMs in its early LTE devices but plans to do so in the future. Sprint is waiting for the iDEN sunset. iDEN handsets contain removable SIMs. Sprint does not want iDEN users hot swapping their SIMs into LTE devices.

 

AJ

 

That wouldn't make the phone work, would it?

[autoprime]

That wouldn't make the phone work, would it?

 

I would think that wouldn't work. But it may confuse people and Sprint could want to avoid that.

 

I've always assumed going the eUICC route was for security reasons. Any time I read about the eUICC standard I see it being a "more secure" alternative. eUICC can ALMOST eliminate stolen devices. If you steal a device that uses a eUICC there's not much you can do with it(unless its a cdma device where you can manually write to the NV). Currently if you steal someones ATT/Tmobile device.. you can pop out their sim and use yours.. no issues. There is no IMEI blacklist here and even if there was, it's super easy to edit. Now if that same device was using eUICC... it would be unusable to the thief. The owner of the stolen phone reports their ICCID(or whatever value they wanna use to restrict this) and now the phone is no longer usable to anyone.

 

Phones that can't be used after stealing them = no reason to steal phones(other than for the current info on them)

[DaQue]

Sorry for typos and auto corrects. Topic should have sim card not simple. I shouldn't one hand type a post only email the phone while running late for work.

[WiWavelength]

That wouldn't make the phone work, would it?

I would think that wouldn't work. But it may confuse people and Sprint could want to avoid that.

 

I would not be surprised if it would work, and that could be the problem. Unless I am mistaken, Nextel iDEN SIMs work in unlocked GSM handsets for international roaming. Perhaps iDEN SIMs could be used with the LTE portion of Sprint handsets, allowing Nextel subs to use LTE (but not CDMA1X/EV-DO) on their current Nextel plans, and Sprint wants to avoid that complication.

 

AJ

[autoprime]

I would not be surprised if it would work, and that could be the problem. Unless I am mistaken, Nextel iDEN SIMs work in unlocked GSM handsets for international roaming. Perhaps iDEN SIMs could be used with the LTE portion of Sprint handsets, allowing Nextel subs to use LTE (but not CDMA1X/EV-DO) on their current Nextel plans, and Sprint wants to avoid that complication.

 

AJ

 

I'm just guessing here.. but how would a Nextel SIM be able to authenticate with Sprint's LTE network? The SIM card's credentials wouldn't contain any info authorizing LTE. Wouldn't the tower basically say, "NOPE" when it tries to connect?

 

I'd assume it wouldn't be much different than someone on an ATT basic plan.. then popping in the SIM to an LTE phone... they may get voice/sms/hspa+.. but certainly not LTE.

 

Of course I'm also assuming the carrier has implemented standard LTE authentication practices.. things would have to be left pretty "open".. tho that's nothing new for Sprint.

[aerxx]

A few months ago, I posed a theory why Sprint has not utilized removable SIMs in its early LTE devices but plans to do so in the future. Sprint is waiting for the iDEN sunset. iDEN handsets contain removable SIMs. Sprint does not want iDEN users hot swapping their SIMs into LTE devices.

 

AJ

 

I did not even think about that, Its been so long since I've had a NEXTEL device that I forgot completely about SIM cards.....

[Bob Newhart]

Does anyone know why the cell phone market is a closed system in Japan? Is it forced by the government or a commercial reason.

 

When you go to Japan, you can't buy a SIM card like you can is most other countries, you have to rent one or rent a phone. Costs hundreds of dollars per week I hear. Norway is the same way, a little more open though.

[Thomas L.]

Actually, I think one of the main reasons Sprint hasn't moved the using SIM cards yet is because, unless you do what Verizon has done (kind of jury-rigging their authentication system to allow one SIM card for LTE and CDMA), the SIM card would only switch over the LTE part of the service and not the CDMA (meaning you might end up with working LTE data but not CDMA voice and data). That particular jury-rigging that Verizon has caused them a lot of grief on their network and a few outages I believe as well. I believe that the only reason Verizon implemented SIM cards in their LTE devices with their jury-rigging technique is because it was a requirement placed on the spectrum that they purchased (they couldn't prevent carrier interoperability, same reason their Galaxy S3 is a world phone, for example). As LTE networks worldwide and in the US start to become compatible with one another, it's more likely that we'll see Sprint start to use SIM cards...

 

All that said, how does the SIM card work in the iPhone? Can you simply switch a Sprint nano-SIM into a Verizon iPhone 5 and have it work? If so it would indicate that Sprint is just being a handset bully.

[Thomas L.]

Does anyone know why the cell phone market is a closed system in Japan? Is it forced by the government or a commercial reason.

 

When you go to Japan, you can't buy a SIM card like you can is most other countries, you have to rent one or rent a phone. Costs hundreds of dollars per week I hear. Norway is the same way, a little more open though.

 

In the past in was because of Japan's use of the Japan-only PDC cell phone system, which was an analog of GSM in Europe and TDMA in the US. There was no actual GSM network for a SIM card to be used with. There are R-UIMs (like CDMA SIMs) that can be used with KDDI's CDMA in Japan, BUT, as a way of making it more costly for non-Japanese countries to market cell phones in Japan and therefore give a boost to Japanese manufacturers, they reversed the TX/RX (send and receive) bands for CDMA in Japan so that CDMA phones in Japan were incompatible with those anywhere else in the world. HOWEVER, with the arrival of WCDMA/UMTS 3G in Japan in the last five years or so, you can finally buy a prepaid SIM that will work with unlocked phones on some Japanese networks, the only caveat is this:

 

"Due to past criminal abuse of prepaid phones, phone sellers are required to verify the identity and place of residence of their customers. Typical proof can be in the form of a Japanese driver's license, a Japanese passport or an alien registration card. Some stores will accept foreign passports along with a hotel address as verification." (Via http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2223.html)

 

The Japanese phone market became more open with baby steps and almost in spite of itself - a bit like what is happened in the US.

[MacinJosh]

I would not be surprised if it would work, and that could be the problem. Unless I am mistaken, Nextel iDEN SIMs work in unlocked GSM handsets for international roaming. Perhaps iDEN SIMs could be used with the LTE portion of Sprint handsets, allowing Nextel subs to use LTE (but not CDMA1X/EV-DO) on their current Nextel plans, and Sprint wants to avoid that complication.

 

AJ

 

Is the authentication system that messed up? I know years ago I tried to put an at&t sim card in a Nextel blackberry to see what would happen, and surprisingly the phone wasn't carrier locked (not like they needed that or anything). Unfortunately I couldn't try the other way around since I didn't have an unlocked at&t phone at the time.

[digiblur]

I don't see how some consider it a rigged system. From what I read in the past, they simply had to use a feature that was in the chipset that would prevent a user from taking a SIM card out of their phone and putting it in another device. Then using 3G on one device and 4G on another at the same time.

[xenadu]

The iPhone uses the SIM for LTE, but CDMA is still driven off the ESN/MSID so you can pop an AT&T SIM in your Sprint iPhone 5 and use it but you can't swap VZW/Sprint because they don't let unknown ESNs on their network.

[xcharles718]

Verizon allows you to register a external ESN/MEID.

 

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