Handphone with 2 numbers

 

Here's something interesting and useful; a handphone which takes 2 SIM cards. One "official" line, and another line for all your private calls!

Any of you guys using one already?


March 11, 2008. The Straits Times Interactive, Digital Life.
Double duty: 2 SIM cards, 1 phone
Dual-SIM card phones are catching on among those who know they exist, as THAM YUEN-C finds out


Samsung's dual-SIM card phone, the SGH-D880 (above), was brought in last December, and sales have been quite encouraging, says the company. -- ST PHOTOS: LIM CHIN PING 












LECTURER Ziggy Soh used to pack an extra sling bag along every time he flew to Beijing and Taipei for work. It was either that, or stuffing two phones - a Motorola ROKR and a no-frills Nokia - into his trouser pockets whenever he went out.

'If you carry two cellphones, one in each pocket, it feels weird,' he quipped.

Ziggy, who lectures in advertising and integrated marketing communications at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, would whip out the phone with a local pre-paid SIM card to make local calls within whichever city he was in.

He used the other phone with his Singapore SIM card to remain easily contactable by friends and family back home.

But he has since ditched those phones. Three months ago, the 40-something man bought a dual-SIM card phone in Taipei. The Pierre Cardin phone, which cost him $200, allows him to use two SIM cards at the same time - in the same phone.

This is possible because both cards are on 'standby', ready to receive and make calls and SMS messages, thanks to two antennas built in.

What's available

AMONG the big-name brands, only Samsung seems to have such a dual-SIM card phone here. The SGH-D880, ($598 without contract), was brought in last December.

'It's more targeted at a niche audience, at least in Singapore,' said Aloysius Choong, an analyst from market research firm IDC, explaining the dearth of such phones by big-name handset makers.

Yet, sales of the Samsung phone have been quite encouraging in the past few months, said Ng Long Shyang, the company's vice-president of sales & marketing for telecommunications and IT products here.

Digital Life understands that China- and Taiwan-made dual-SIM handsets have also made their way to Singapore.

A check with shops in Sim Lim Square show that they cost anything from $200 to $300. Most carry unfamiliar brand names such as CECT or Anycool.

Shopowners interviewed reported 'brisk' trade, but mostly for export.

They go mostly to countries like India, Malaysia and Indonesia, said one distributor, who did not want to be named.

But they admitted there were people buying them for use here too, despite the fact that the phones have not been approved for use in Singapore by the Infocomm Development Authority.

One vendor admitted that listing the phones for export allowed him to skirt 'strict' licensing issues.

Unlike the dual-SIM phone plans of six or seven years ago, which only operate one SIM card at any given time, the newer breed allows both SIM cards to operate at the same time.

This could solve the headache of having to carry around two phones. And with more cellphones than there are people here - 5.7 million mobile subscriptions against a population of 4.5 million - such folk might not be too uncommon.

TAKE marketing executive Mavis Leow.

She had been carrying two phones around for five years, in a bid to keep her personal and work line separate.

A month ago, a relative told her about the dual-SIM phones, and she was sold. 'I didn't want to give out my personal line for work purposes, and it's also for billing purposes because my company pays for the work line,' she said.

Other people use these phones to combine different phone plans. For example, one for unlimited incoming calls, and another for unlimited text messages, said Aloysius.

Dual-SIM card phone converts, like Ziggy, find their new handy aids more than handy.

He uses a prepaid card in the phone for making calls to companies and unfamiliar numbers, and switches to his regular SIM card for people he knows. A smart way of keeping his regular number from being spammed, he explained.

'Many companies record your phone number when you call them, then send you marketing messages. If I use a prepaid card, even if any company records my number when I call, it can send its text messages only to my prepaid card, which I can get rid of without much hassle.'