Where's My Dick Tracy Wristwatch Cell Phone?
The newest wristwatch cell phone is absolutely incredible: The $549 Epoq EGP-WP88 is a quad-band unlocked-GSM cell phone. It sports a touch screen for dialing, and can use a Bluetooth headset -- or you can forgo the headset and do it Dick Tracy style and talk to the hand. The EGP-WP88 also takes pictures and plays music and videos. It charges like a regular watch, using kinetic recharging (it charges as you move your arms while walking). The gadget is incredible, but YOU WON'T BUY ONE AND NEITHER WILL I. The reason: Because cell phone carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, et al, refuse to enable multiple handsets per account. If you want two phones, they'll force you to use two accounts. So everyone has to pick just one cell phone handset. (Like this article? Digg it here!)
10:50 AM * PERMALINK * 11 comments
Comments:
Couldn't you just set up a "Family Plan" for you & Iggy McNotaperson to get 2 phones? *you would have to pay for both, but maybe share minutes*
Anyways, if you have the cool wristwatch phone, why would you want to carry around another one?
Can I call Madona on it?
My wife and I have a Family Plan with Verizon (300 minutes per month with two phones). I have a Samsung and she has an LG. It works just fine and I can't imagine why, if Verizon were to sell the Wristwatch Cell Phone, one of us couldn't use it on the existing account.
Can't you just swap SIM cards on US GSM phones or are they tied to the phone somehow? This doesn't work with CDMA, but with AT&T/T-Mobile and GSM you shouldn't have an issue.
That sounds crazy! In the UK you can put your sim card in any phone you like. I used to use about 3 different phones a while back - a small one (with bad battery life) for going out, one with an mp3 player for work and a camera phone for when i was feeling arty. it seems insane that once you have a contract in the US that you are also tied to a phone.
The only restriction like that I can think of in the UK is where 3 used to stop people putting their 3g sim in a 2g only phonem, to force the sim to collect to the then better 2g service.
In the UK some people get the newest phone out on an ok contract and then sell the phone striaght away online - the profit from which covers the contract and usually leaves a little over.
Anyway, you guys over the pond need to revolt and get your carriers to let you use your own sim how YOU choose!
BTW... watch phones still haven't taken off over here... if i wasn't currently tied into a 12 month contract with a 3g carrier then i would get one of the newers ones, probably the W800 watch phone. The only issues for me are entering mobile numbers on the go and poor battery life. lets hope others pic up on the kinetic charging - should really be all all mobiles!
Either Mike's confused or I am. Most phones sold through service providers are locked so you can't use them with any other provider, but the SIMs don't seem to be. I can put my Blackberry's AT&T SIM into my old unlocked Sony P900 and it works just fine - I can make calls and access the Internet. Verizon's phones don't have SIM cards so you're stuck with a family plan solution (for a small fee you can share minutes between the phones but you've got different numbers).
If Mike wants two phones to have the same number without swapping SIM cards, I don't think that's possible. How would calling that number work? Do both phones ring? What happens if you pick up one and want to switch to another? You could set up some weird call forwarding mechanism, but can the existing network standards support fudging an outgoing number? Would this also work overseas? This is a lot like having a network with duplicate IP addresses, it's a very hard problem to solve and not just evil phone companies withholding services.
"If Mike wants two phones to have the same number without swapping SIM cards, I don't think that's possible. How would calling that number work? Do both phones ring?"
Yes, it is possible... but expensive.
You need two exact same contracts.
(Not sure if the phones can differ.)
One phone is the master.
The master will accept all incoming calls.
When the master is unavailable (switched off, out of range), the calls will go to the other phone automatically.
But your service provider must support such a functionality, and you must be willing to pay for two contracts.
Even if I got a Dick Tracy watch, I wouldn't wear it.
With my luck, it will only get stolen.
Does anyone actually offer that service (not just in the US, but anyplace in the world)? Sounds dangerous to me, what happens if you leave both phones on at the same time? If there's the slightest chance it can cause issues with the network by crashing the switch software there's no way a service like this will get deployed, even if it would only affect that customer it would probably cost a fortune to support as people complain that they left their master phone on by accident or, even worse, claim they lost E911 service because of it.
If you want to complain, ask the equipment vendors to make it easier to swap SIM cards. At least that's something that doesn't require standards development to actually implement.
I know this topic is dead but 2 phones with the same number is not something offered anywhere. Most every cell nowadays has call forwarding so if you have 2 phones on either a family plan or individual plan you can set up one to instead of going to voicemail go to your other phone. Also sim cards can be put into any phone that is unlocked. Carriers lock the phones and sims to there service. but if a phone is unlocked it can be used on any carrier that uses the same frequency or band width.<---they should be called radio phones.
You just have two phones and on SIM card, and just use the sim card in whichever phone interests you that day. Why don't American's get it? The phone with the SIM card is active, the phone without the sim card isn't!
"Anonymous said...
You just have two phones and on SIM card, and just use the sim card in whichever phone interests you that day. Why don't American's get it? The phone with the SIM card is active, the phone without the sim card isn't!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:57:00 PM"
Yes, but Verizon does not use sim cards - they program the phone.
One on the reason why I left Verizon...
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