Why Do People Still Text
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@DustinB3403 Well yes when you are on a Wifi network that you use. But without the SIM card your cell phone number will not work.
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@Minion-Queen said:
@DustinB3403 Well yes when you are on a Wifi network that you use. But without the SIM card your cell phone number will not work.
Not the primary number, this is true.
You could sign up for a free Google Voice number, which is purely Internet Based. And simply pay Google for the cost of any calling minutes used. Texting is free, unlimited.
This would make it a purely WiFi Cell phone.
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@Minion-Queen said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Minion-Queen said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
Do you use SIM cards in the US or is it something different?
I do because I'm not in the US. But by and large, it's hit and miss. Verizon is by far the biggest US carrier and they do not have GSM or SIM cards. The next two biggest carriers, AT&T and TMobile, are GSM and do use SIMs. Smaller carriers are more or less random.
All of our Iphones since the 4s's have had SIM cards in them (yes we are on Verizon).
@Minion-Queen said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
Do you use SIM cards in the US or is it something different?
I do because I'm not in the US. But by and large, it's hit and miss. Verizon is by far the biggest US carrier and they do not have GSM or SIM cards. The next two biggest carriers, AT&T and TMobile, are GSM and do use SIMs. Smaller carriers are more or less random.
All of our Iphones since the 4s's have had SIM cards in them (yes we are on Verizon).
They dont use them, though, until you travel. It's their international option.
Huh? The phone has a SIM card in it. If you take the SIM card out you have no service of any kind...
That's weird. I've had a lot of Verizon phones and the SIM card was always optional. I've had them and only added SIM cards later, remove them when not needed. Never affected how it worked in the US.
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Yes they are how all the Iphones and windows phones (ha ha ha) run now on Verizon. The SIM card does need to be changed to travel internationally however.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Yes they are how all the Iphones and windows phones (ha ha ha) run now on Verizon. The SIM card does need to be changed to travel internationally however.
All Verizon 4G Android phones have the micro-SIM card in them as well. You are required to have that installed and activated to use any of their cell networks.
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Verizon requires a SIM for any LTE device. The older CDMA didn't use SIM cards.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
Verizon requires a SIM for any LTE device. The older CDMA didn't use SIM cards.
That's the kicker right there! Scott never worried about SIM cards because they weren't used until LTE came along. LTE is what requires them.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That's weird. I've had a lot of Verizon phones and the SIM card was always optional. I've had them and only added SIM cards later, remove them when not needed. Never affected how it worked in the US.
It was part of the change with moving over to LTE.
"Technically" you can use an AT&T SIM on a Verizon phone to access AT&T's LTE service, depending on the device and if it can hit the right channels. The base services are still CDMA for voice and other data services, but get info from the SIM for registration versus the old school IMEI info. There are registration issues and various other things that make it not work, but LTE follows GSM encoding so in theory it will work.
Devices designed around GSM usually can't talk CDMA, but since CMDA is a limited market most of their devices also speak GSM. All under one SIM.
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@Dashrender said:
@brianlittlejohn said:
Verizon requires a SIM for any LTE device. The older CDMA didn't use SIM cards.
That's the kicker right there! Scott never worried about SIM cards because they weren't used until LTE came along. LTE is what requires them.
I had already moved to TMobile at that point, I think. I had SIM cards in my Verizon phones before then going back to 2007 because of my travel.
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@Dashrender said:
@brianlittlejohn said:
Verizon requires a SIM for any LTE device. The older CDMA didn't use SIM cards.
That's the kicker right there! Scott never worried about SIM cards because they weren't used until LTE came along. LTE is what requires them.
Scott never worried about SIM cards because they weren't used much in the USA until GSM finally defeated CDMA/TDMA/Analog.
Fixed.
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More that I didn't worry about them because I had to have them anyway for European usage so didn't notice when the US phones changed because the last time I looked at Verizon they were still making a point of offering a limited selection of SIM card enabled GSM phones for that purpose.
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Even with my non-contract plan has unlimited texts. Very few plans don't have unlimited texting.
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@Jason said:
Even with my non-contract plan has unlimited texts. Very few plans don't have unlimited texting.
Today, yes, that is getting to be very true. Outside of the US I'm still finding it to be less common, they still sell "numbers of texts" packages on every block at every pulperia.
No idea what Europe does. I assume unlimited there.
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When we were in Africa we had to buy cell phone credit constantly. Texts were FAR cheaper than calling so most everyone texted.
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Was talking to @MarigabyFrias and learned that unlimited texting is not widely available in her part of the world. Not a common thing and she was amazed to learn that unlimited texting was widely available in the US.
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Found out from my aunts in Ohio this past week that none of them have unlimited text and that my aunt has an issue that lots of her friends have either blocked texting or have to ask people not to text them because they have to pay per text. Even I was amazing by how many people I ran into this week that don't have universal access to texting even in the US. It remains less than ubiquitous.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
Was talking to @MarigabyFrias and learned that unlimited texting is not widely available in her part of the world. Not a common thing and she was amazed to learn that unlimited texting was widely available in the US.
Is data not available there?
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
Found out from my aunts in Ohio this past week that none of them have unlimited text and that my aunt has an issue that lots of her friends have either blocked texting or have to ask people not to text them because they have to pay per text. Even I was amazing by how many people I ran into this week that don't have universal access to texting even in the US. It remains less than ubiquitous.
Wow - that does seem surprising today. I take it these are small towns in the middle of no where, so no major carriers?
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We talking about work people texting vs emailing? Or friends or family?
Family is almost always email or phone call.
I can count on less than five fingers the number of emails i have sent friends in my entire life. Texting or phone calls for them.
Work after hours is a phone call if they actually want me to do something about it right away. Otherwise a text or email might not get seen til manana. -
@Dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
Found out from my aunts in Ohio this past week that none of them have unlimited text and that my aunt has an issue that lots of her friends have either blocked texting or have to ask people not to text them because they have to pay per text. Even I was amazing by how many people I ran into this week that don't have universal access to texting even in the US. It remains less than ubiquitous.
Wow - that does seem surprising today. I take it these are small towns in the middle of no where, so no major carriers?
This is easy. they are using some low end 'budget plan' from a nationwide big name carrier. When they should be instead using something like republic wireless.
