freerunner unable to work with 3G SIMCards?

[steve]

Ah,

 perhaps the best approach then would be a line up of known criminals.

 That is a gallery ( pictures etc) of SIM cards that are known to misbehave 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Joachim Steiger [mailto:roh at openmoko.org] 
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 5:18 PM
To: List for Openmoko community discussion
Cc: Michael Shiloh; Brenda Wang; steve; nibbler at nibbler.de
Subject: Re: freerunner unable to work with 3G SIMCards?

steve wrote:
> Michael and Brenda.  I want a Page on the wiki showing which carriers 
> have issues,  a table by country by carrier.

hi steve, michael, brenda, community.

that does not make real sense.
the issues we are seeing with some sim-cards are not carrier-related, but
related to which specific model of sim-card they bought.

currently it seems that old gemplus sim-cards have this issue, but we need
more people with and without problems to submit pictures of the contact-side
if the sim.
the only universal way we currently have to identify which manufacturer and
model the sim really is, is to have a scan/sharp photo.
the numbers on it are not unified and thus cannot be universally used to
look up which type it is.
also carriers tend to have multiple types of sim in use over the years and
also switch manufacturers from time to time.

see the attached pictures on ticket 666
http://docs.openmoko.org/trac/ticket/666

at the moment i am not yet sure if we have a electrical or mechanical
problem, but the current state from my point of view is: 'some type of
gemplus simcards (the 2 different types with round edges/ contact
plates) give trouble/do not work.

> This is vital for solving those cases where folks have problems and 
> for advising people prior to purchase.

indeed. also this needs more samples of which sims work and not work to
finally know whats going on and what to tell people to do as workaround.

so please do a shot like this:

http://docs.openmoko.org/trac/attachment/ticket/666/sim1.jpg

sharp, contact side. label the file as 'sim working' or 'sim notworking'
and attach it to this ticket in the wiki.

also would be nice to have some comment about which carrier, and when it was
given out, if you think its a '3g sim' and, if you want, the numbers on it.
but thats 'cream on top', not essential, since this is a carrier-independant
problem it seems.

kind regards.


ps: because it seems a often asked question:
the numbers of the sim are not directly 'secret' or need to be kept
confidential.
one cannot clone or locate your sim/phone with knowledge of these.
only the carrier who gave the sim out could identify or duplicate the sim,
and would not need the numbers on the original for that because that
information which one could look up is in their databases already.
so no harm done by having them in a photo.


-- 

Joachim Steiger
Openmoko Central Services