Multiple cell phones, same sim?

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I don’t know if it can be done and I’ve not been able to turn up anything in searching.

I am going to cut my land line and use my cell exclusively. I’m in the process of porting my land line to my cell.

I would dearly love to have more than one cell attached to this one line. In other words, if a call comes in, all the cells would ring and the one I answer would “win”. Minutes would be deducted as usual. I’m somewhat hazy on the technology, so perhaps it can’t happen because of communication with the tower, etc.

Right now I’m using Tracfone, which may be a further complication as it is a cheapo alternative – at least for me and the way I use my phone.

Any ideas for me?

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AFAIK, you can only use one number per SIM. make sure you have good voice mail and maybe a second phone and PAYG SIM as backup.

cheers, Paul

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thank, I was afraid of that! What is PAYG sim?

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BTW, I don’t want multiple numbers per sim. IOW, I want a couple of clones of my current phone around the house.

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You would then need the same number on the SIM card. I guess that your phone operator will only deliver one and if you claim you have lost it, they will disable it and give you a new one. So I believe that it is not possible.

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Bottom line–can’t have 2 cells of any brand on the same #.

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PAYG = pay as you go, no contract.

cheers, Paul

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Tracfone was in a class action suit a few times for bilking their customers. I moved from Tracfone to Virgin, also PAYG, and more reliable. I pay all of $21 for 3 months. But I’m not using it as my main phone, in fact only 10-20 minutes per month.

A PAYG would NOT be a good substitute for a landline, too expensive.

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This thread may be among those that vary wildly by jurisdiction. You have a choice of either sticking strictly to the rules of the game in your jurisdiction, or of changing jurisdictions to meet the cellphone of your dreams. What could be more romantic, or more adventurous? Or more anti-climatic when you are forced to admit to the one true love of your life and/or conquest of the ages that you changed jurisdictions (say, did you know that you can download ibarraReal.ttf, free of charge, which just happens to be the font specifically designed for Don Quixote?) for was to sort out your, ah, little problem?

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This thread may be among those that vary wildly by jurisdiction. You have a choice of either sticking strictly to the rules of the game in your jurisdiction, or of changing jurisdictions to meet the cellphone of your dreams. What could be more romantic, or more adventurous? Or more anti-climatic when you are forced to admit to the one true love of your life and/or conquest of the ages that you changed jurisdictions (say, did you know that you can download ibarraReal.ttf, free of charge, which just happens to be the font specifically designed for Don Quixote?) for was to sort out your, ah, little problem?

Are you living in the real world or have you been smoking that stuff again? A cell phone should be for making phone calls, period. It’s not a work of art, the love of my life, or a status symbol. It’s too small to do anything more than make calls, and some of them have buttons that are even too small for that. When I was a kid, TV’s were 13″ and black-and-white. The larger size is now easier on the eyes, clearer and of better quality. Who in their right mind would want to watch TV or movies or the internet on a tiny screen again?

It’s a phone, a convenience when I’m not home. My little blue Kyocera cost $10, I pay $7 a month for the Virgin Mobil, and I’m crazy over it. Usually I have some of my 100 tri-monthly minutes left over. It has nice big buttons that I can see and simple directions. So I don’t feel like I’m learning another computer system all over agin, since Windows is buggy enough.

It’s just a telephone.

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Are you living in the real world or have you been smoking that stuff again?

It’s just a telephone.

Since you quoted my post I should be the one to answer.The real world is bad enough, thank you, but if you know where I can find some really good stuff, that might improve my disposition.

My point was about jurisdictions (and I was having a bit of fun with the OP given that this was, I think, in Scuttlebutt).In this part of the world there have been wireless phones, not to be confused with cell phones, which are so old I’m not sure you can even get them anymore. You sprinkle a few around your house and it’s all one system, with the phones literally wireless externally, and it’s just like having an extension phone but without having to plug it into a jack. Because they are wireless you can wander around as you talk and you can locate them where you want them, such as the back yard if that is where you are and yes, for conspiracy theorists, if the neighbours have your wavelength they can listen in too. These are practically museum pieces by now and as far as I know you can have multiple cell phones for a single (cell) number here.

My present setup, all with the same provider, has a plain old-fashioned phone (for the present at least), plus a mobile gadget that plugs into my laptop computers for internet access (not to be confused with Wi-Fi,), plus fairly high-speed internet fixed location (using the phone line) complete with wireless networking (there go the neighbours again).. I’m still waiting to see how it works out (regarding the cost) or whether I have been sold The Brooklyn Bridge, but it all works as it is supposed to. The regular phone is the same number it has always been.

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Since you quoted my post I should be the one to answer.The real world is bad enough, thank you, but if you know where I can find some really good stuff, that might improve my disposition.

My point was about jurisdictions (and I was having a bit of fun with the OP given that this was, I think, in Scuttlebutt).In this part of the world there have been wireless phones, not to be confused with cell phones,

They’ve moved it to General Productivity.

I was only partly joking, but thinking you were asking the OP to move to get the phone of her dreams. Anything is possible today. And no, I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea where to get pot. I didn’t even use it 45 years ago.

Chinese to most of us. Those are not the ones where you plug the jack into an electrical outlet?

In this part of the world, children go to school not carrying books, but a cell phone in their hands, (Used to be a hairbrush 20 years ago.) They buy them in strange colors and shapes with everything but the kitchen sink attached, and spend the day playing with the buttons. But then again, their parents do the same, and talk about their divorce right in the supermkt checkout lane. But I suppose even in Ontario you’ve heard about it.

It’s really a scary prospect for our society, as they never really look anyone in the face any more, and will unable to read body language or tone of voice as they get older. Or spell. Or construct written sentences. But it won’t matter, because everyone will be the same.

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This thread may be among those that vary wildly by jurisdiction. You have a choice of either sticking strictly to the rules of the game in your jurisdiction, or of changing jurisdictions to meet the cellphone of your dreams. What could be more romantic, or more adventurous? Or more anti-climatic when you are forced to admit to the one true love of your life and/or conquest of the ages that you changed jurisdictions (say, did you know that you can download ibarraReal.ttf, free of charge, which just happens to be the font specifically designed for Don Quixote?) for was to sort out your, ah, little problem?

Sorry but what has this to do with the post we are in?

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I would dearly love to have more than one cell attached to this one line. In other words, if a call comes in, all the cells would ring and the one I answer would “win”. Minutes would be deducted as usual. I’m somewhat hazy on the technology, so perhaps it can’t happen because of communication with the tower, etc.

There are services that ring multiple phones simultaneously (Vonage has one named SimulRing). This might requires a third number, i.e., your phones would all have new numbers and your “real” number would be handled by the service. Caller ID will be messy.

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There are also some business office equipment manufacturers that are offering equipment that will ring cellphones or wireless phones so employees can take their “office phones” with them wherever they go. Pricey right now, but I expect to see home systems take that approach shortly.

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Too bad the smilies aren’t working in my post above.

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Seems like you want multiple extensions at home for your cell phone. If so, try the Vtech cordless phone system DS6322-4 ($80 at Costco.) It has Bluetooth and connects your Bluetooth cellphone (up to two cells) to your phone system. You do not have to have a land line. Then when the cell has an incoming call, all extensions ring and any can answer the call from any extensions. You can also break in to an existing call from any other handset like an ordinary household phone with multiple extensions.

When you get home, drop the phone near the base and it is shared. Normally you would have a charging station anyway, so park it and use it while charging. The system has 4 handsets. You can add up to a total of 12. It will download the phone book from each cell and store on the base station making available to each handset. When making a call, you can select which cell or land line you want the outgoing call to use.

It use the new Dect6.0 technology so calls are clear and you have good range. I got more than 300′ outside and the base station was inside an aluminum sided house which normally a great RF shield.

I got one last Saturday and have been delighted with it combining a landline and two cell phones. Also has an answer machine built in.

Works great!

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Get yourself a Google Voice account. You can set it up to ring any number of phones, without worrying about SIM Cards.

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I don’t know if it can be done and I’ve not been able to turn up anything in searching.

I am going to cut my land line and use my cell exclusively. I’m in the process of porting my land line to my cell.

I would dearly love to have more than one cell attached to this one line. In other words, if a call comes in, all the cells would ring and the one I answer would “win”. Minutes would be deducted as usual. I’m somewhat hazy on the technology, so perhaps it can’t happen because of communication with the tower, etc.

Right now I’m using Tracfone, which may be a further complication as it is a cheapo alternative – at least for me and the way I use my phone.

Any ideas for me?

As the poster above suggested, Google Voice will do what you want (if you are in the USA which your address says you are). You get a Google Voice number and then set it to ring as many other numbers as you want it to. The catch as several of the other posts point out is that you need a separate phone line with its own number and account for each potential answering location and/or person. If you and/or your family (or associates) already have cell phones it doesn’t change much — if you have to add extra phones each with their separate accounts, it will be more convenient, but it might not be cheaper. There were Google Voice incoming numbers in most major US locations and area codes last time I checked. I think you may be able to “port” your existing number to Google Voice — I’ve never checked that as I’m not in the USA so porting my number is not an option.

Google Voice is set up to pretty much do exactly what you are describing. The catch for lots of the readers here is that it is only available in the USA. There may or may not be workarounds for other countries — you can use Google to find out if you can “beat” Google’s limitations in your country. I’m in Canada, and there is allegedly at least one working possibility here — but not in my home area code.

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Way back in the “80s when I worked for a cel phone manufacturer, the field technicians had (as part of their cell phone troubleshooting and repair set-up) software that would allow cloning SIM cards. It made it much easier to repair (by swapping one handset for another identical handset). The electronic serial numbers were different, but the handsets were otherwise identical. It could be done. Today, I am sure that with our federal government and their requirement that every cell phone have GPS installed and activated any time the cell phone is turned on, it would be very difficult to clone the SIM card information. Most chandsets will not allow switching a SIM card from a defective handset to a new working handset.

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Most handsets will not allow switching a SIM card from a defective handset to a new working handset.

I’m not sure I understand this. I’ve borrowed SIM cards from others to test whether unlocked phones are truly unlocked, and they worked every time. ??

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