Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

SIM card problem?

Mar 24, 2005 8:01AM PST

Hi. I have Cingular and upgraded my phone about 9 months ago and signed another 2 year contract. Long story short phone appeared to never have service in areas it should have. But the phone would not show "no service". (it would appear as if the call should go thru) If you were lucky enough to get a call thru it dropped you. After much frustration Cingular replaced the phone. I have the same problem with the replacement phone. Could it possibly be a bad SIM card???

Also... with 1+ year still left on my contract... could my phone get "lost" and be replaced at cost to me with the same number??? I do not have insurance.

Thank you

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
location
Mar 24, 2005 12:04PM PST

Do you have location turned on ?

If you have it set for only 911, only 911 knows where you are.

If you have the location turned on, then the phone company you have the cell phone with, will try to find your phone when you get a call(otherwise if you leave your area, the carier will not find you.)

- Collapse -
WHAT ??
Mar 25, 2005 9:31AM PST

What are you talking about. Of course the cellular company can identify your phone even off their network. Cingular doesn't use GPS and neither do current 911 services. There is no such setting in your phone to turn location on or off.

- Collapse -
Read your instructions
Mar 25, 2005 11:07AM PST

All the phones that my wife and I have, have a setting for turning the location on or for 911 only. If you have it on 911 only, the network will NOT try to find you when you leave the area. Call your carrier and ask them !

- Collapse -
RE GPS Location
Mar 25, 2005 11:51PM PST

I think what pudgyone is talking about is the E911 feature. The FCC is making mandate that cellular devices come equipped with an e911 gps feature. I am not sure of the dealine, but do know it is one of the leading causes of the blackberry 7510 and its replacement with the 7520. But I am sure it could also include features like airplane mode or as in the cases of some data devices where the wireless feature can be turned on and off.

- Collapse -
location
Mar 26, 2005 1:20PM PST

The manual says for my wifes phone

Enables your network to locate your current position through Global Positioning System (GPS)


The manual for my phone says

To determine whether or not the network system can detect your position


Even my friends phones have this feature and they are with a different carrier

- Collapse -
GPS NO
Mar 27, 2005 12:15AM PST

Remember, the original post was about a Cingular phone. Cingular does not yet support E911 or GPS at this time. The technology does not exist in any Cingular handsets. Please keep this in mind in reference to the original question.

- Collapse -
Re
Mar 25, 2005 11:45PM PST

It could be about a million things from a bad phone model (Some phones get terrible reception, could be a bad sim, or about a hundred other things. If you could

What phone is it?
What area of usage (i.e. Sacramento/NY/Orlando)?

Try a powercycle. WHat this is, is turning off your phone and removing the battery for 30-35 seconds, this will clear the phones cache and restore your identity in cingulars que, then replace the battery and boot back up. This fixes most problems. If not another thing that comes to mind is if it is the NY market the standard 32k sim was recently replaced with a 64k sim to increase usage allowing for Tmobile towers to also be used. The easiest way to tell if you have a 32 or 64k sim is to look at the number on the back. Count how many digits. If it is 19 digits its a 64k sim if 20 digits its a 32k sim. Please note some sims may leave out the first 4 numbers so dont be in shock if you are short a couple of digits.

If you have 20 digits you might want to call cingular and see if a 64k sim is available yet. They should take care t upgrade you, (Dont forget to transfer your numbers if they are on the sim)