A busted cell phone

today I found a busted cell phone laying on the street. I did want to return it, but can’t turn it on since the LCD is totally busted. The SIM has a PIN so I can’ put it in another phone either…

so I have two questions… first, is the SIM card worth anything? I mean, not by being allowed to use the person’s account (which I can’t access anyway, due to being locked out) but all the SIM cards are manufactured the same, right? They are just programmed slightly differently… so theortically the should be able to be reprogrammed (probably by only the telecom company itself). But practically… will they do this for you? Like for example, if I have this SIM… then say I lose my cell phone… can I ask them to use this SIM that I found? Or would they say, nope, here you have to buy a new SIM card?

Second question… I believe it is just the LCD that is busted… anybody know if there are places that just sell LCD’s and how much one might run?

[quote=“pcolatat”]today I found a busted cell phone laying on the street. I did want to return it, but can’t turn it on since the LCD is totally busted. The SIM has a PIN so I can’ put it in another phone either…

so I have two questions… first, is the SIM card worth anything? I mean, not by being allowed to use the person’s account (which I can’t access anyway, due to being locked out) but all the SIM cards are manufactured the same, right? They are just programmed slightly differently… so theortically the should be able to be reprogrammed (probably by only the telecom company itself). But practically… will they do this for you? Like for example, if I have this SIM… then say I lose my cell phone… can I ask them to use this SIM that I found? Or would they say, nope, here you have to buy a new SIM card?

Second question… I believe it is just the LCD that is busted… anybody know if there are places that just sell LCD’s and how much one might run?[/quote]

The SIM card has the name of the issuing phone company (Chunghwa Telecom, FarEastTone, etc) as well as a serial number. The phone company can identify who it belongs to. Also, cell phones have a built-in ID number. There is no way you can use the phone or the SIM card for any legitimate purpose. You’d do best to return it to the phone company, or a cell phone dealer who will pass it on to the phone company.

As for getting your own SIM card (and phone), if you are going to stay in Taiwan for two years or more, you can sign up for two years of service and get a free (or almost free) phone. SIM cards nowadays are free (in Taiwan) even if you only stay for a few months.

Are you sure it didn’t belong to Chris Rock?

He’s missing his old cellphone.

SIMs comply to the GSM standard, as such they are manufactured the same - but I don’t see what you are trying to say with that?
As robert_storey says you can identify the phone company from the SIM’s number, they then can trace the owner.

AFAIK a normal SIM cannot be reprogrammed, the data is burned into it.
It would be possible, in theory, to use the same SIM by transferring the ownership but I doubt the phone company will do this, in particular if the original owner does not agree (has not been identified/consulted …).

You can use the phone with another SIM unless it has been “SIM-locked”, i.e. the phone has been set to work with that particular SIM only. It’s also possible to blacklist the phone based on it’s hardware ID, but in a different network it still can work. Most companies don’t use this feature though.
Even though you probably could find someone to unlock the phone the SIM itself would be useless.

I support this suggestion.

[quote=“pcolatat”]today I found a busted cell phone laying on the street. I did want to return it, but can’t turn it on since the LCD is totally busted. The SIM has a PIN so I can’ put it in another phone either…

so I have two questions… first, is the SIM card worth anything? I mean, not by being allowed to use the person’s account (which I can’t access anyway, due to being locked out) but all the SIM cards are manufactured the same, right? They are just programmed slightly differently… so theortically the should be able to be reprogrammed (probably by only the telecom company itself). But practically… will they do this for you? Like for example, if I have this SIM… then say I lose my cell phone… can I ask them to use this SIM that I found? Or would they say, nope, here you have to buy a new SIM card?

Second question… I believe it is just the LCD that is busted… anybody know if there are places that just sell LCD’s and how much one might run?[/quote]

That SIM card is useless if you want a “free” cell phone account.

And it might not be a good idea to put money on fixxing LCD, sometimes it’s cheaper to get a new one.