
The Netherlands paves the way for carrier-free SIM cards - lelf
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57620572-94/the-netherlands-paves-the-way-for-carrier-free-sim-cards/
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lutusp
This is a positive step for everyone. The present carrier practice reminds me
of the awful 19th century stories about mining towns where the workers were
paid in company script instead of money, and the script was only redeemable at
the company store. That meant the workers could be cheated endlessly (not
knowing the real value of things expressed in a universal currency) and they
also couldn't simply leave (because the company wouldn't redeem their own
script for money).

Today's cell phone carriers are the modern equivalent of a predatory company
town at its worst. Let's hope this idea catches on.

~~~
wtallis
FYI, the term is _scrip_ :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip)

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userbinator
_you 'll no longer have to be tied to a specific carrier_

This was always the case before with an unlocked handset; it's not entirely
obvious how "carrier-free SIM cards" make any difference here.

 _Imagine it: a world where a SIM card is fully integrated with your device;
no need to swap it out when you change carriers or travel overseas._

Isn't that basically what CDMA did?

The article also seems to ignore any mention of multi-SIM devices, which are
quite common in most of Asia.

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JakaJancar
So many questions...

\- Are "carrier-free" SIMs really _illegal_? As in, outlawed?

\- How do you then choose the operator? Do phones even support such a
"selection/login" interface? Or is it a bureaucratic process?

\- If the latter, how do you easily switch carriers when traveling between
Europe and US?

~~~
pjmlp
The article is flawed.

In Europe we could always buy mix and match SIM cards with mobiles since the
early days.

Just how you get the mobiles is different.

In some countries you can choose between paying the full price or having a
kind of virtual contract, which means you get it cheaper but it is locked to
the operator for two years. After which you get the code to unlock the mobile.

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SyneRyder
Android Authority has a quote that seems to make more sense of this, the
analogy with global 3G Kindles seems best to me:

"This is meant primarily for large scale M2M deployments, think smart
metering, vehicles, Kindles, machinery etc"... "it is certainly not for normal
consumers and it is not about soft-SIMS. It is about hard coded SIMs that are
under control of the M2M deployer." [http://www.androidauthority.com/carrier-
free-sim-cards-way-3...](http://www.androidauthority.com/carrier-free-sim-
cards-way-360112/)

For consumers, if you have an unlocked phone you can already get global SIM
cards from companies like Truphone or Woolworths Global Roaming (and several
others) that roam onto other networks while travelling. Carriers are
increasingly letting you roam with your current SIM card anyway.

~~~
adenner
But in those cases the sim is still tied to some provider who is managing the
agreements for roaming.

~~~
danieldk
Indeed. As someone who travels regularly between The Netherlands and Germany,
I can say unlocked phones are not really the solution. It's annoying to have
to switch SIMs every time you cross the border. Also, most interesting phone
models do not have a dual-SIM option.

I am actually hoping that this will pressure carriers into removing roaming
costs. It is very odd that pay exorbitant costs to use my Dutch T-Mobile
subscription in Germany (T-Mobile is a German company), rather than just using
calling time of my subscription.

That said, roaming costs have dropped a lot, thanks to regulation of the
market by the EU.

[http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/roaming](http://ec.europa.eu/digital-
agenda/en/roaming)

~~~
riffraff
FWIW, my solution as a frequent country-commuter is to just have two phones.
Get a tiny 15€ nokia weighting 60 grams and just use that when abroad in
addition to your main one.

It is obviously slightly less practical than a single one, but it's better
than switching SIMs and as a bonus you can have both numbers "always on".

~~~
SyneRyder
Genuine question, is switching SIMs that frustrating? The Nokia trick wouldn't
work for me as I use my phone mostly for Google Maps & data, it's far cheaper
to swap SIMs than buy an iPhone for each country :) Even in my home country I
switch a SIM card between my two phones, depending which phone I need to have
3G access.

My tactic when travelling has been to use a global roaming SIM during a long-
haul trip (eg so I have some data during airport stopovers), then switch to a
local prepaid SIM with a good data allowance once I reach my destination.
(Congstar has worked well for me in Germany.)

------
spindritf
Sounds like they're solving a problem very few people (couple of frequent
travellers) have. Is swapping a SIM such a big deal? You can already move your
number to a different carrier.

More, I think that swapping a card is actually pretty good UI. It
unambiguously shows that you're making a big change. Unlike a toggle in the
menu. It's easy to understand and hard to exploit.

OTOH, why not. Having an option of frictionless carrier hopping may have some
unforeseen (at least by me) upsides.

~~~
a3_nm
Say I am at a spot where I do not have signal from the carrier I am subscribed
to, but I can have signal from another one. Why should there be any friction
in buying individual minutes/megabytes from that other carrier? This is
obviously impossible when SIMs are tied to a specific carrier, but in fact,
why shouldn't mobile phones offer the option to pick any available carrier
depending on which one is proposing the best rates?

Also, about swapping cards: dual SIM telephones are fairly popular, which
illustrates that many people are using more than one SIM and do not like to
have to switch (because they want, e.g., to be able to receive their texts on
both). This is just a temporary solution, the right one would be to have one
SIM but tied to multiple providers.

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doesnt_know
I'm not really sure of the functional difference this provides over what we
already have?

Here in NZ, you can already buy a phone and then put whatever SIM card you
want in it. You can quickly swap between carriers in less then 30 seconds. The
carriers give SIM Cards away like candy, usually with free credit on them so
it's not like cost is a factor.

That's not to say folks always do this. For the most part, I think people just
sign up with a carrier anyway because they want one of the $1000 smart phones
or an iPhone and can't afford (or don't want) to pay the up front cost for
one.

Basically, those that want to be on a Prepay plan with complete carrier
freedom, already have that option. Those that are willing to be locked into a
contract for a few years in exchange for a free/low cost smart phone can
already do that too.

------
Zenst
This still leaves the situation of carriers only accepting certified SIM's
upon their network.

Also this is very much like being able to port your phone number across
networks and with that you will still have provisioning hoops to jump thru as
it is not that instant.

Now a SIM you could provision with more than one carrier, that would be handy,
though that is already available with dual SIM phones. So I'm not entirly sure
this is as big a deal as being made out. After all a SIM costs nothing, yet
the phone that is locked to a network, now that is another issue. More
important to have the ability to purchase a unlocked phone than a unlocked SIM
that you can just swap out. Though this could lead to the Apple idea of having
the SIM built into the phone and recreate CDMA for GSM, after a fashion.

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arb99
Anyone know why carrier-free SIM cards are illegal?

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ksec
I am not getting what does this mean? Does that mean I could switch to any
Network Carrier within Holland and not having to switch sim card?

So basically a Software Defined Sim Card?

I thought Apple tried this but failed. May be they could try again?

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zxexz
TIL I've been breaking the law.

~~~
kintamanimatt
How so?

~~~
zxexz
I have a carrierless SIM I've been playing with with a Pirelli DP-L10 phone
and OsmocomBB.

~~~
zxexz
*had

