Key Post: Cloning a SIM card

C

Chord of Souls

Guest
My new (second hand) car (1999) has a slot on the in-car computer where you can insert your SIM card and effectively you can make and receive calls using the in-car computer as screen and keyboard. It's also linked to the sound system speakers and there's a mic pre-installed. Pretty neat.

BUT

it expects a SIM card that's roughly the size of a credit card. Does anyone remember them? Looked like a credit card with a chip on it? My phone (a 2004 Nokia) has just the small SIM card that's not much bigger than the chip.

Anyone know can I get my SIM card cloned onto an old-style SIM? And where? (Main dealer for car can't help - suggested just getting an in-car kit installed, which would seem to me like duplication.)

Thanks.
 
Sim

All SIM crads still come as a credit card size card. You pop the mini-SIM out of the big card. If you get a replacement SIM card and activate it on your mobile number then your problem is solved.
 
Re: Sim

or pop your existing SIM into a standard credit-card sized "sim holder"
 
Re: Sim

If you get a replacement SIM card and activate it on your mobile number then your problem is solved.
Click to expand...
But then your original SIM card will be disabled, so you won't be able to use the original phone - right?
 
Re: Sim

I see. My SIM card has been carried with me through a few phones and so original holder is long since lost. So it seems that I can either

(a) find somewhere I can get a credit-card sized SIM card holder to pop my existing card back into when I want to use the phone in the car (seems a little bit cumbersome) or

(b) get a new replacement SIM card which is still in the holder. As Rainy Day says, this would be useless if it means that my current SIM card no longer works in my handset out of the car. Can I get a replacement SIM card without disabling the current one, so that either/both will work simultaneously, i.e. I can choose to take/make a call either in the car or on the handset using the existing number?

Thanks for replies so far.
 
Re: Sim

This link might be of interest to you - note the last paragraph!
 
Re: Sim

Thanks. This is progress. From the link you've provided, it seems I need a SIM Card converter. Or (preferably) get my SIM card cloned onto a copy with the full-size holder still intact. Googled SIM card converters and came up with all sorts of very technical stuff, the majority of which I didn't understand. (I don't really want to buy a machine for cloning a SIM card, I'm happy just to get one cloned )

By any chance do you know of any mobile phone accessory shops in Dublin that actually know lots of things about mobiles, as distinct from the Carphone Warehouse supermarket mentality?
 
Re: Sim

If you can get one of the credit card sized SIM cards (which has the original SIM popped out - I've seen them thrown on the ground as litter in the past but not so much these days) then you MAY be able to kludge something (e.g. using tape as mentioned in the link above) so that you can use it as a holder for your own small SIM in your in-car system. However this might be prone to problems. Other than that all I can suggest is that you try some of the mobile outlets or other specialist phone/electronics shops for a proper holder/convertor that might be more reliable.
 
Result

Spoke to a very helpful girl in the Telephone Shop in Dawson Street. Apparently it's not possible to clone a SIM card so that you can use two SIM cards on the one number.

But apparently you can order a free replacement SIM card from Vodafone, complete with full-size holder. Or if I was passing, she offered to give me one (a holder, that is. :b )

So I think I'll cobble together a way of popping my SIM into the holder when taking long trips in the car. (Too much hassle for short runs.)

Thanks for replies.
 
The Girl was wrong

1. It is possible to CLONE a SIM

BUT

2. GOD help you if you have both of the phones turned on at the same time.
 
I want to be the enigmatic one...

1. How or where can I go to do this / get this done?

2. What happens?
 
Boards.ie

Thanks. I've posted on boards.ie.
 
Just bought Mrs. V. a car which features an integrated telephone in the dashboard. You pop your SIM card into a slot in the dash and you can dial from the centre console, answer and hang up using buttons on the steering wheel, automatically interrupts the music system etc. All very groovy but I can't see herself fiddling with her phone to take out the SIM card every time she wants to pop down the road.

Any updates on how / where / if we can get a duplicate SIM card issued whereby both would work?
 
This suggests that cloning a SIM is tricky at best and is probably illegal in many (most?) jurisdictions. Ask your operator about the possibility of obtaining "duplicate" SIMs but I doubt that operators offer such a service.
 
Thanks for that. Interesting.

It begs the question - why would a mass-market car manufacturer (Volvo in this instance) go to the trouble of putting a really nice installation in their cars if the only way of using it is the awkward method of removing your SIM card every time you want to drive anywhere?

Or are there Nokia models on which the SIM card can be popped in and out of the phone easily? (By easily, I mean not requiring you to take off the back cover, remove the battery, lift the SIM guard and then prise out the card itself - as I said, Mrs. V. just wouldn't have the patience to do that every time she pops out for a drive and I can't say I'd blame her)?
 
Maybe they expect drivers to have two SIMs (and mobile numbers) - one for the phone and one for the car? Possibly used in conjunction with some suitable call forwarding setup when appropriate? This thread seems to suggest as much and there seem to be lots of other discussions of this sort of (Volvo) setup elsewhere on the web that might shed more light on the issue.
 
Again - thanks. It appears that the only viable method is to buy a PAYG SIM card for permanent installation in the car and then set the divert on her primary phone to "Divert if powered off".

But as I think about it, doing that means that if she powers off the phone at home, she effectively loses voice-mail on her primary phone.

 
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