Wireless Cell Phone Problems...how the sim card can work for you!

In a story published here on Hub called The Reasons Why You Should Buy an iPhone 4 the author touted the wonders of the new technology. I couldn't agree with him more. But then I have already purchased my iPhone so he is singing to the choir. I have been an iPhone user for 2+ years now and needed to upgrade my phone. I am very excited about getting this new toy. Even though we are well into the G 4 iPhone season here in this country, the Apple company cannot keep up with the orders and my iPhone has been put on back order. That is a problem. I thought we may be without a phone...period. See, we do not have a house phone because we travel a great deal. Our iPhone is our phone, internet connection, gps...the list goes on and on. And I had already committed to give the phone away before the end of July. Here is the story.

My son's iPhone was beginning to show it's age. He wanted a better phone but was not necessarily excited about a new iPhone. He had just purchased an iPad last month. It has the Kindle application included on it. He decided he wanted my old iPhone. I wanted his two year old Kindle which was made obsolete for him when he purchased the iPad. So we decided we would trade. I headed off to the AT&T store to buy my iPhone 4 upgrade. That was almost two weeks ago. It seemed like a no-brainer when I bought it because my new phone would be in soon...right? Well no, it is not here, it has been back ordered and he is leaving for his home in China tomorrow. Because he lives in China, shipping technology like an iPhones can be a problem. The Chinese are suspicious of us to say the least. I knew that if this was going to work, we needed to get the iPhone in his hands before he left. Oh, did I mention that we only use our iPhone and have no home phone at all?

As the date approached for the departure of my son I began to worry. How were we going to survive without a phone even for a week? It seems silly in light of the way we grew up but that is the way it is today. Then I began thinking about the small AT&T GoPhone I had purchased in an emergency visit last winter. I got it out, charged it but it would not open, upload minutes or even tell me what it's number was! And I had not written it down. Sigh. Would there be someway we could get it back up and running so we could at least have an emergency number?

This morning I grabbed the little Nokia GoPhone and my iPhone and headed off to the AT&T store. David, my AT&T guy, was just waiting for me to show up. I am giving the iPhone away but I cannot get my GoPhone to even gather a signal or download minute. Can you help me? Well of course he could but it surprised the heck out of me how he went about doing that. I handed him both phones, he removed the sim card from the iPhone. (We are given a small key to do that when we purchase the phone.) He then opened the small Nokia GoPhone by pushing the button on the top and pulling down. The back popped off and he removed what looked like the battery and then removed the sim card. He then replaced it with the sim card from my iPhone. The service, contacts...everything came over with it. No new contract, no change in anything. It was as though it had never happened.

I took my iPhone to my son, he put his sim card from his old iPhone in it and we were all happy! Now when the new iPhone comes in I will put a the new sim card I purchased today in the Nokia and my husband will have a small phone to use. The new sim card cost $26 dollars and the charge will appear on next month bill. I even chose a number for the Nokia before I left the store. It will cost us about $20 per month more but it will be worth the extra money.

It seems there is nothing we cannot do...well unless it involves cracking the iPhone. The news today tells us that is going to be illegal! Darn.

b

You might be interested in my blog Retire in Style Blog! Technology is one of my favorite subjects!