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Three Mobile (3G) Sim Card in 2G Phone
opearmain
04-05-2004
Having heard numerous rumours and reading various online material, I still don't have a clear picture as to exactly the situation regarding whether one can simply insert their 3G sim card into a (regular) 2G phone and happily chat away. (obviously the Three functionality won't work)

Having spoken to a Three salesman in Superdrug, he told me that using a 3 sim in another phone would "fry" it, because they use a completely different frequency or something like that?

One of my friends claims that a shop near him will unlock a Sony Ericsson t610 to work on Three for £10. (I've also seen one of these going on eBay with a ThreePay simm card).
Assuming this is the case, is there something special about the t610 or is this feasable on any 2G phone?

I have read in other forums from one guy that his 3 simm just worked in his old 2G phones (Sansung and Panasonic)...

Can someone please spread some light on this for me... I've been pondering whether to go for "the next generation" for ages but this will really swing it one way or the other

Many thanks Ollie
Everything Goes
04-05-2004
3 Sim cards will work in certain 2G phones (this will not fry them). 3 got pissed off at people doing this (breach of contract technically) and now monitor which phones are used via the IMEI numbers. If that catch on to this you can expect to have a new sim card sent out to you restricting you to the 3G network!

Also unless you want the cheap tarrifs on 3 I suggest you wait till the other 4 proper networks launch 3G later this year with much better handsets.
opearmain
04-05-2004
Thanks,

I'm actually considering a Three Pay (pay as you go) simm so thats why I was contemplating putting this in a regular phone.

Do know of any specific phone models that work on three?
Everything Goes
04-05-2004
There is an extensive list here:

http://www.geocities.com/drtamseel/2ph3sim.html
lalaland
05-05-2004
Originally Posted by opearmain:
“Having heard numerous rumours and reading various online material, I still don't have a clear picture as to exactly the situation regarding whether one can simply insert their 3G sim card into a (regular) 2G phone and happily chat away. (obviously the Three functionality won't work)

Having spoken to a Three salesman in Superdrug, he told me that using a 3 sim in another phone would "fry" it, because they use a completely different frequency or something like that?”

Bollocks. The fyring part is just something Three say to scare you off using their brick like useless unreliale phones.

Originally Posted by opearmain:
“One of my friends claims that a shop near him will unlock a Sony Ericsson t610 to work on Three for £10. (I've also seen one of these going on eBay with a ThreePay simm card).
Assuming this is the case, is there something special about the t610 or is this feasable on any 2G phone?”

A lot of 2g phones will work with a Three Usim, but not for long as Three WILL find out what you are doing when your IMEI turns up on their system as a 2g phone. The only way around this would be to change the phones IMEI to match the 3g handsets IMEI, but this is illegal in the UK and you can end up with 5 years in prison for changing the IMEI for any reason.

Originally Posted by opearmain:
“Can someone please spread some light on this for me... I've been pondering whether to go for "the next generation" for ages but this will really swing it one way or the other”

I have a Three contract and hated my Nec e606, so I bought a Nokia 7600 on Threepay for £150. I sold the Usmi on ebay for £30 and then used my Three contract Usim in my Nokia 7600.

If you want to use the Three network and like me just want the tarrif but not the poor effort of 3g services such as video etc. then buy yourself a Nokia 7600. It's reliable, small (compared to other Three phones) and a nice phone. Plus using this will not get your usim locked after a while unlike using a 2g handset.
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