SIM card for GSM Phone in '97 740i.

I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
(cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size of
the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and placed
in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these large cards in
complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'

That is the trouble with tech wizardry, 6 years and it is out of date
and cannot be made to work. It is a pain as it has the total hands free
setup answering calls from the steering wheel, etc, so as it is now
illegal in the UK to use a car phone that is not hands free, I would
like to be able to make it work.

Parts dept at local franchised garage no help. 'Try your service
provider'

I suggestion made to me was that it needs a 5V card, and the modern
onews are 3volt.

Kai_lung wrote:
>
> I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
> (cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size of
> the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and placed
> in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these large cards in
> complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'
>
> That is the trouble with tech wizardry, 6 years and it is out of date
> and cannot be made to work. It is a pain as it has the total hands free
> setup answering calls from the steering wheel, etc, so as it is now
> illegal in the UK to use a car phone that is not hands free, I would
> like to be able to make it work.
>
> Parts dept at local franchised garage no help. 'Try your service
> provider'
>
> I suggestion made to me was that it needs a 5V card, and the modern
> onews are 3volt.

Did you try all 4 ways of sticking the (large) SIM card in there?

Randolph wrote:

> Kai_lung wrote:
>
>>I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
>>(cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size of
>>the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and placed
>>in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these large cards in
>>complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'
>>
>>That is the trouble with tech wizardry, 6 years and it is out of date
>>and cannot be made to work. It is a pain as it has the total hands free
>>setup answering calls from the steering wheel, etc, so as it is now
>>illegal in the UK to use a car phone that is not hands free, I would
>>like to be able to make it work.
>>
>> Parts dept at local franchised garage no help. 'Try your service
>>provider'
>>
>>I suggestion made to me was that it needs a 5V card, and the modern
>>onews are 3volt.
>
>
> Did you try all 4 ways of sticking the (large) SIM card in there?


Yes, and there is actually an arrow on the housing and one on the front
of the big card that may indicate right side and way round.

"Kai_lung" wrote in message
news
> I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
> (cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size
> of the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and
> placed in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these
> large cards in complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'

Which network's SIM are you trying? IIRC, in '97 the BMW phones only
supported 900MHz i.e. Vodafone or O2.

Grant wrote:

> "Kai_lung" wrote in message
> news >
>>I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
>>(cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size
>>of the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and
>>placed in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these
>>large cards in complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'
>
>
> Which network's SIM are you trying? IIRC, in '97 the BMW phones only
> supported 900MHz i.e. Vodafone or O2.
>
>
I tried an O2 card, but it has been suggested that if the phone was
locked to Vodaphone, for example, it would not recognize the O2 card.

What I really want to know, I suppose, is were the old cards the same
physical layout as the current cards with tiny pushout SIMs.

If so , the problem would be getting the phone unlocked, not finding the
card.

AFAIK the basic geometry of the cards has not changed but the chip features
have. It might be that the handset cannot handle the card. Is that a
possibility, do you think?

What does a BMW dealer say? Or BMW UK?

DAS
--
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"Kai_lung" > wrote in message
. uk...
[...]
> I tried an O2 card, but it has been suggested that if the phone was locked
> to Vodaphone, for example, it would not recognize the O2 card.
>
> What I really want to know, I suppose, is were the old cards the same
> physical layout as the current cards with tiny pushout SIMs.
>
> If so , the problem would be getting the phone unlocked, not finding the
> card.
>
>

"Dori A Schmetterling" > haute in die Tasten:

> AFAIK the basic geometry of the cards has not changed but the chip
> features have. It might be that the handset cannot handle the
> card. Is that a possibility, do you think?
>

If I remember right, there was one shift in the voltage of the GSM cards which may make
the use of a new card in an old phone impossible. And of course the old GSM phone will
probably not be dualband or triband compatible. In Germany O2 uses a 1800 MHz network,
not 900 MHz. If this is not availabe, you are routed to a 900 MHz network. So a german
phone which is used with an O2 card necessarily has to be dualband compatible.

Frank

--
please replace spam-muelleimer with fk-newsgroups for e-mail contact

Citroen - Made in Trance

I had one of these and bought a SIM card adaptor which was a card with a
recess which held the small SIM card on a sticky surface. The adaptor was
then inserted and it worked fine. In UK I was using Vodafone. Before selling
the car I changed to Orange and that wouldn't work.

"Kai_lung" > wrote in message
news
> I have just bought one of these, and the built in mobile phone
> (cellphone) has no simcard. I have established that it is the size of
> the bigger cards that modern sims come in, to be broken out and placed
> in your pocket size phone, but just sticking one of these large cards in
> complete has it still asking for 'insert Card'
>
> That is the trouble with tech wizardry, 6 years and it is out of date
> and cannot be made to work. It is a pain as it has the total hands free
> setup answering calls from the steering wheel, etc, so as it is now
> illegal in the UK to use a car phone that is not hands free, I would
> like to be able to make it work.
>
> Parts dept at local franchised garage no help. 'Try your service
> provider'
>
> I suggestion made to me was that it needs a 5V card, and the modern
> onews are 3volt.
>
>
>

Kai_lung appears to be in the UK -- see his first post.

Here O2 (its predecessor's predecessor, Securicor/Cellnet, in fact) was an
original 900 MHz operator. Now O2 (like the other 900 MHz operator
Vodafone) operates 1800 MHz transmitters to fill out coverage, taking
advantage the wide availability of dual-band phones (that's a European and
international digital 900/1800 MHz dual-band, not North American
analogue/digital) in the past few years.
(Maybe the network operators even drove the introduction of dual-band phones
for this reason.)

BTW, I would be surprised that this is very different in Germany, despite
your comment on O2. Are you sure they don't also have 900 MHz transmitters?
What about T-Mobile/D1?

DAS
--
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"Frank Kemper" > wrote in message
...
[...]
>
> If I remember right, there was one shift in the voltage of the GSM cards
> which may make
> the use of a new card in an old phone impossible. And of course the old
> GSM phone will
> probably not be dualband or triband compatible. In Germany O2 uses a 1800
> MHz network,
> not 900 MHz. If this is not availabe, you are routed to a 900 MHz network.
> So a german
> phone which is used with an O2 card necessarily has to be dualband
> compatible.
>
> Frank
>
[...]

Curious. Adaptor + new small SIM card works but old-style large card
doesn't? Should be same, should it not? How long ago did you do this?

DAS
--
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"Rooster" > wrote in message
. uk...
>I had one of these and bought a SIM card adaptor which was a card with a
> recess which held the small SIM card on a sticky surface. The adaptor was
> then inserted and it worked fine. In UK I was using Vodafone. Before
> selling
> the car I changed to Orange and that wouldn't work.
[...]