(TECH) Useable SIM cards?

[Spetznatz1]

I wondered if anyone knew what specific SIM cards will work with the RePhone? I'm located in the US, and I currently use Verizon, (which is a CDMA carrier, not GSM), and I just wanted to get a pre-paid SIM card to put in my RePhone.

I certainly don't want to go about getting a SIM card or two only to find out that they don't work.

[bart.spainhour]

NC-US here (also Verizon for main phone), and I'm using T-Mobile pay-as-you-go prepaid for Xadow. Base price is $3/mo for 30 texts/minutes. After that, it's $0.10 per SMS/minute. (There are other plans and data passes.)

I've used T-Mobile's prepaid option in the past with SIM900 Arduino shields, but had to start new with nano-SIMs for use with Xadow.

[Spetznatz1]

That sounds pretty good. I just want something cheap to operate my RePhone, for experimentation. Did you order a SIM card online or go into a store? Everywhere I've been I haven't seen just SIM cards for sale. It's like they want me to buy a phone. I'd hate to pay out $20 for some crap phone just for the SIM card.

[bart.spainhour]

T-Mobile sells a "Prepaid 3-in-1 SIM Starter Kit" online. It's listed at $15 but there's a promo code to purchase for 99 cents. https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pre ... tarter-kit

They're also available to pick up in-store, but in addition to the wait time, you'd pay $10 for the SIM and $10 for the E-PIN (plus tax). (But also get a $7 starting balance.)

[dbelam]

Tesco Mobile in Hungary works, but you have to cut the SIM manually - they only offer SIM and MicroSIM.

[catalinanesia]

Any one in Canada?
I am in Montreal, does anyone know what carrier is supported? any compatible sim card for Quebec?

Thanks!

[adam+seeed]

The RePhone's GSM, which in Canada is Rogers/Fido and a few others. I'm having good luck so far with a simple Speakout 7-11 pay-as-you-go card (which uses Roger's network), but fido/rogers nano-sims should work OK.

Incidentally, I bought my 711 sim before they had a nano, so I had to cut down a mini, and it still works perfect. Now they have a 3-in-1 card which includes a nano version. The activation process worked great too, no problems at all. Make sure you keep all your receipts and read all directions if you've never used pay-as-you-go with 711 before, it's a 2-stage process: sim-card activation, then activating the minutes you've purchased for your now-active sim. I'll admit I was nervous until the confirmation sms arrived!

Hope this helps!

[catalinanesia]

Adam,
Thank you so much! at least now you narrowed down my options.
I was ready to go see Rogers and now that you confirmed I can buy it, do I need to mention to them anything about an
absolutely 2G card? or it does not matter ...

Regards,
Catalin

[adam+seeed]

I didn't even really talk to anyone about it when I bought mine!

I walked into 711, asked for a speakout card and $20 of minutes.
She explained the card is non-refundable, they're not responsible if it doesn't work in a non-speakout phone, stuff like that.
It all happens online at their website BTW. Just create an account and go.
The receipt for the minutes is _huge_ because it has your instructions and passcode on it, don't loose this!!
The sim card has an instruction sheet inside on how to activate. You need the IMEI number of your phone, it's printed on the big chip on the bottom (assuming the sim card side I'm calling the top). KEEP THIS NUMBER PRIVATE! No pictures online, stuff like that. AFAIK this may be the only time it's actually used.
Once your sim is activated, then you follow the procedure to add minutes to that account. This is the "usual" procedure for this kind of pay-as-you-go.

Sorry if I've over-explained, this was actually my first pay-as-you-go and with this "strange" phone I wasn't sure how it would all work. It seemed like black magic, but was awesome.

That being said, if I could have afforded another regular cellphone line, I'd have just walked into fido and added one, gotten a nano-sim and been done. I'm 99% sure that would work OK too.

[catalinanesia]

Adam,
Sorry to go on with this questions but will the LTE thing matter? both Rogers and Fido has this descriptions under pre pay sim cards:

Fido LTE Multi SIM Card

Multi SIM card supports Regular, Micro and Nano formats
Accesses the Fido LTE network
For use in any compatible Fido Wireless Device
Also known as a smart card, the SIM card is a thumbnail-size card inserted into your Fido phone. It stores a full range of personal information, such as your phone number, phone book, recently dialed numbers, language preference, and saved text messages.
Multi SIM card supports Regular, Micro and Nano formats.


Rogers LTE Multi SIM Card
Accesses the Rogers LTE network with any compatible Rogers Wireless Device.

1 Within Rogers LTE network footprint. Based on tests comparing data throughput speeds and on geographic coverage area comparison (in square kilometers) across Canada to Bell and Telus' LTE networks. See rogers.com/coverage for full details on Rogers LTE network coverage.