# SIM cards. ( If this is the wrong forum, please move. )



## Sasaferrato (Sep 6, 2012)

The local Poundland are selling SIM cards for, surprisingly enough, £1.00.

How does this work? Is each separate SIM card a telephone number? In other words, if I bought one of those cards to put in my old phone, will the phone then have a new number?

If it is that simple to obtain a new number, how the hell could the security services ever track anyone? At a pound a time plus some credit, a new SIM cold be used for every call. ( Not hat I think that the security services should necessarily have the right to listen to people's calls. )


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## peterkro (Sep 6, 2012)

Yes you do,it's freedom some other countries don't have,Oz and NZ require id that they note down and is filed somewhere (someone will not doubt tell me if I'm wrong).For the security conscious a boon.


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## Sasaferrato (Sep 6, 2012)

peterkro said:


> Yes you do,it's freedom some other countries don't have,Oz and NZ require id that they note down and is filed somewhere (someone will not doubt tell me if I'm wrong).For the security conscious a boon.


 
Thank you.

I'll get one for Mrs Sas, my old phone is still in good order. It wouldn't be used that often, but handy to have. There were a couple of hundred of them in the bin, wont they run out of numbers as happened with landlines?


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## Puddy_Tat (Sep 6, 2012)

Sasaferrato said:


> If it is that simple to obtain a new number, how the hell could the security services ever track anyone?


 
The security services / those who advise the government / the government assume that potential terrorists haven't discovered anonymous PAYG mobile phones and therefore think tracking the rest of us is a good idea.



Sasaferrato said:


> wont they run out of numbers as happened with landlines?


 
With PAYG sim cards, if you don't activate them within a certain time / use them for ages, I think they go stale and the number gets recycled.  I know I got a free PAYG sim card from my provider, and a year or so later when I wanted to give it to a friend, it did not no longer work.


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## SaskiaJayne (Sep 6, 2012)

Each SIM has its own phone no. Provided you buy a SIM as described & top up using tokens you buy rather than your own credit/debit card then nobody can track you down. Unless they trace calls & spot you on cctv somewhere. I think drug dealers change their SIMs quite regularly.


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## SaskiaJayne (Sep 6, 2012)

Your wife's phone may be locked to a certain phone company, ie o2 for example, if thats the case then it will only work with o2 sims. any small phone shop can unlock it tho but it cost £15, I think. If phone is only used infrequently, ensure you make a short call every 6months or sim will die as described.


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## Firky (Sep 7, 2012)

"Burners"


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## thriller (Sep 8, 2012)

good thread. makes a change from ususal garbage threads.


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## FaradayCaged (Sep 8, 2012)

Tescos sell Sim cards for 99p, beats pound land on price. 

You can request free Sim cards off each mobile operators website as well although that defeats the anonymous aspect.


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## Sasaferrato (Sep 9, 2012)

SaskiaJayne said:


> Your wife's phone may be locked to a certain phone company, ie o2 for example, if thats the case then it will only work with o2 sims. any small phone shop can unlock it tho but it cost £15, I think. If phone is only used infrequently, ensure you make a short call every 6months or sim will die as described.


 
It would be my old phone which was on contract to 3.

When I upgraded my phone, they cut off my service as the SIM which had been in the old phone for three years apparently didn't exist. Then they sent a mini SIM, I had the devil's own job to get it in the right place. Then they cut the service off again. I went to the shop where they supplied an adaptor for the SIM. I complained about the lost days service.

I got 11 calls from their Indian based customer services, each one which started with a discussion of the SIM that the shop had supplied when I changed the phone, they didn't it was the same SIM. On 12th call, I told them to go away and leave me alone. They had no understanding of the problem, and I was pissed off starting from scratch each time. Their customer services are appalling, when my contract with them is up this time, I will be moving to another company that has UK based customer services. I would not recommend them at all. The actual phone service is fine, but their customer services are an absolute joke.


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## audiotech (Sep 9, 2012)

Free sim card, with £5.00 credit thrown in. Calls cheap too and keep your number.


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