Hi, does anybody know of a mobile phone that can hold two active GSM SIM cards at the same time, i.e. that allows me to receive calls and make calls on two different numbers using one piece of hardware? I know there’s a phone now that offers one GSM SIM slot and one PHS number, what I’m looking for is two GSM chips in one phone … thanks! Xpet.
You can get a special back cover for the Nokia 8210/8250 which will hold 2 sims. Turn on and off to go between sims. Prolly get it in the nightmarket.
Xpet wrote[quote]Hi, does anybody know of a mobile phone that can hold two active GSM SIM cards at the same time, i.e. that allows me to receive calls and make calls on two different numbers using one piece of hardware? [/quote]
Two girlfriends huh? You greedy little bugger!!! 
Thanks Dr. Doom, I found a gazillion links to these “ghost” sim holders and other varieties that allow you to connect two sims … what I’m looking for is a phone or device that allows me to have them both switched on at the same time, and they all don’t seem to be able to do that … I heard about a Benq phone that supposedly can do it, but I can’t seem to find any more info on that … ??
Almas John, you caught me! 
The one gf is my wife, and the other my boss, both keep me on a tight “leash” which I’d like to combine into just one, less painfull … Plus, I could always tell my boss that I’m sorry, but I have to put him on hold as the 大老闆 is on the other line …
No, there are none (that I’ve found through google searches). I’d see if there’s a cell phone service here that allows you to have 2 numbers good to one sim/phone (they had one in the US that could).
Two have two SIMs working at the same time in one phone you would need to duplicate the electronics, thus essentially having two phones in one casing.
I doubt anyone makes those, most likely because there isn’t a market for that and the phone would get bigger (as opposed to the current trend which is making them smaller and smaller).
Beside those SIM adapters you could activate call forwarding from one SIM to the other, thus you won’t miss any call.
I saw a year or so ago, where at Guanghua computer market you could buy a device that would take two sim cards, and copy them onto one blank card. I think it is illegal though, but so is turning right on a red light and that doesn’t stop anyone in Taiwan. I heard you didn’t have to buy the machine that some people in Guanghua market would do it for you, but that it was very risky as the guy making the copy could easily make a copy for himself and international sex line calls with your SIM.
I wanted to do this for my car phone, so that I didn’t have to insert my SIM card when I got in the car, I would just make a copy and better yet, burn my wife’s card too. Anyone know where to get these machines? I have been asking around but it seems they went out of fashion or were banned.
My li’l Nokia has an option to use ‘line 1’ or ‘line 2’. I have no idea what his means or how it works, but it might be relevant.
Line 1 and 2 means you can handle two calls at the same time, toggling between the two (one line is put on hold but not disconnected while you speak on the other line). Still uses one number (one SIM) only.
Thanks everybody, looks like this thing doesn’t exist … but I don’t agree with Rascal, I think there’s a market for it, I know quite a few people who would be interested. I also think the trend towards ever-smaller devices has somewhat halted (or stalled, maybe because of certain limits reached??) and people are now again more interested in functionalities rather than micro-size phones. But I’m no expert or mobile phone geek or anything, so my impression regarding this trend thing might be plain wrong …
Hobart, a colleague of mine has one of these little sim copy machines, but when I last spoke to him (I wanted to do the exact same thing as you … car phone use!) he hadn’t been successfull in actually copying a card, let alone copying two cards on one sim. I guess to do the latter, or rather to use such a combined sim then afterwards, you’d need a phone with the corresponding software set-up, so that would probably be the next hurdle we’d run into …
Thanks a lot everybody, I’ll keep looking and will post any results … Xpet.
Compared to the estimated billion of mobile phone users in total I doubt that those people would count as a market from a mobile phone producers viewpoint.
Actually on this one you are most likely right - in particular multimedia content needs a big(ger) screen so people don’t want a phone that is too small. Nobody likes a phone though that is too big.
Anyone rememeber the Nokia Communicator? A mix of mobile phone and PDA, yet too big as phone but to small as PDA - and therefore it didn’t fly.
Fourteen years and finally solved.
My Samsung works great when traveling just add in an additional SIM that is local and best of both locations.
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But, I believe dual-SIM card smartphone still only allow one SIM at a time to take incoming/outgoing calls and text messages. Just like the 2 dual-SIM card brands that I’ve owned, I’ve had to switch back and forth between phone #s, depending on which one I wanted to use.
My dual SIM phones (Samsung) allow incoming/outgoing calls and messages from both SIMs all the time. I was worried I would get confused and make a long-distance call or something but it’s easy to recognize so no problem which probably depends on the software and UI of the phone and how well it is designed.
But only one SIM is designated for data which is okay cuz I just designate the local SIM where I’m traveling for data.
Also very useful in countries like Philippines or Thailand where people use certain networks and it’s cheaper to have a SIM from that network. In Philippines for example I’ll have both a Globe and Smart SIM card (both usually free at airport) when I’m there so I can talk to everybody cheap or free. It’s also useful for the other party who may not want to spend money calling.