Virtual sims

[maximus1987/lou99]

Obviously, no carrier anywhere wants virtual sims.

http://m.intomobile.com/2011/11/04/apple-patents-idea-virtual-sim-card-operators-around-world-freak-out/

 

What's it gonna take for this tech to make it into a phone? Apple could play hardball and withhold the iphone unless an operator allows it but that seems unlikely.

 

Is there a business case for operators to be in favor of v-sims?

[lynyrd65]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

[maximus1987/lou99]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

What?

[lynyrd65]

What?

Indeed

[maximus1987/lou99]

Indeed

I'm on 1x. What is it?

[koiulpoi]

Reading the article, isn't this what Apple already does for the CDMA iPhone? It asks what carrier it's on when it powers up, and then activation goes through Apple's servers. This would just extend that 100% to GSM devices, from the 90% it already was.

[maximus1987/lou99]

Reading the article, isn't this what Apple already does for the CDMA iPhone? It asks what carrier it's on when it powers up, and then activation goes through Apple's servers. This would just extend that 100% to GSM devices, from the 90% it already was.

No it's way different. With current sims, if you have a sim from carrier X, you can only connect to network X. Apple wants to be able to dynamically switch from TMO to sprint to ATT to VZW to etc as often as it wants to.

 

This would turn cell service into an auction: the iphone would broadcast "hey orifices! Give me your best price" and the iphone would choose automatically the lowest price.

If you're in an urban area, your iphone will choose TMO. If you're in countryside, it would redo the auction and choose VZW or ATT (or maybe sprint if they buildout).

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

No it's way different. With current sims, if you have a sim from carrier X, you can only connect to network X. Apple wants to be able to dynamically switch from TMO to sprint to ATT to VZW to etc as often as it wants to.

 

This would turn cell service into an auction: the iphone would broadcast "hey orifices! Give me your best price" and the iphone would choose automatically the lowest price.

If you're in an urban area, your iphone will choose TMO. If you're in countryside, it would redo the auction and choose VZW or ATT (or maybe sprint if they buildout).

 

Holy Scheiße! That sounds cool! But seeing as though most of the U.S. population lives in urban area, wouldn't T-Mobile make insane amounts of money?

[maximus1987/lou99]

Holy Scheiße! That sounds cool! But seeing as though most of the U.S. population lives in urban area, wouldn't T-Mobile make insane amounts of money?

That's why the carriers will never allow this without apple going thermonuclear on them.