telephone system in the early C5 X7

[qprdude]

Just a thought. I'm in the process of finally updating my old mobile. It's about three years old and very basic. SWIMBO got a budget smartphone a couple of weeks ago, and I rather fancy being able to go online at wi-fi hotspots withoit dragging my Nexus tablet along with me. I had narrowed it down to a few sets, as I have a PAYG sim from O2 and I want to keep the same number etc and to be honest, I send a dozen or so text or multimedia messages a month and rarely use the phone to call anyone. I'm not particularly mean, but most of my family and friends have monthly tarrifs which means they can call me for free virtually.
Having got that out of the way, I suddenly realised that my car has the SIM card telematics, where you stick the SIM into a slot, and the cars computer loads up your contacts etc and remembers them next time you put the card in ( I think) . II have looked at loads of phones but only just noticed that many of them have "mini-SIMS" and some have "Nano SIMS" which ain't no bleeding good in my car SIM slot!
What to do? What budget smart-phones have a standerd (old) sized SIM Card? I have the specs of 20 phones, but very few have the size of the SIM. Is there an adaptor (as in the SD card adaptors for micro SD cards?) that will fit my car slot. Anyone got any ideas on phones or adaptors for the car?
I'm vurtually a technical Dinoraur so try not to confuse me with jargon for the under 30's.

[Ben82]

iPhones prior to the iPhone 4 have the regular sim... I know the Samsung Galaxy S2 has the regular size too.

However there is the option of a "Blue Peter" adapter: http://gizmodo.com/5539485/how-to-make- ... im-adapter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

[qprdude]

Cheers Ben, the Galaxy S2 is an option but I've just google adaptors and I found that they can be had for under a fiver, with no cutting (I think)
I would prefer the android operating platform rather than Iphone or windows as I have android Jellybean on my tablet and I'm familiar with it now after a year of battle!

[DickieG]

It'll be a right old faff removing the sim from your phone and inserting it into the radio every time you get in the car which'll no doubt end up with the sim getting damaged, why not get a pay as you go sim and leave it in the car?

[qprdude]

It'll be a right old faff removing the sim from your phone and inserting it into the radio every time you get in the car which'll no doubt end up with the sim getting damaged, why not get a pay as you go sim and leave it in the car?

Because I have nearly a hundred contacts on my sim card and I couldn't face telling them I have a different number. The other thing is, how do my contacts know if I'm in the car or not, so which number to call.
And no, you cannot have two sim cards with the same number as a private individual, it is not possible because of security issues and providers won't allow it.

Of course, the only time I put my sim into the slot in the car, is if I am making a long journey alone in the car, and that has only happened once in the past year. Otherwise, SWIMBO answers, or the caller will have to wait until I get where I'm going, or until I can safely stop. Not the greatest system on earth, but I suspect the system was designed for the business (salesman) market and very soon changed to bluetooth in later models.

[beko1987]

Find a local market stall andget your simcard cloned? Then backup your contacts to phone, swap sims, restore to 'new sim', then you'll just have to make sure your phone is in flight mode when the car is on, and only turn flight mode of when the car is off.

My dad had a saab 9-3 with a sim slot and that's what he did, vodafone wanted him to take out a new contract and pay for call divert.

[qprdude]

O2 did the same with me. For a couple of time a year at most, I'll just pop the sim in the car slot. It's no big deal really, and the sim is 6 years old already. I can get a new sim from O2 for nothing if this one gets damaged and they will transfer the number and saved stuff on the phone for free too, as well as keeping me on the same cheap PAYG tarrif. Most of my stuff can be easily moved to the micro sd card so I'm happy to carry on for the time being.

[citroenxm]

When your driving setup a call divert to the car phone so it automatically diverts to the car when your driving.. but then remember to switch call divert back off after your journey...

[qprdude]

Just bought a Sony Expedia and although it has a standard sim, I asked the guy to fit a new one. I got a new. Mini sim in a standard adaptor. The new sim isn't activated yet so I haven't been able to play with it yet.
Nice 4 inch display and android jellybean. To be honest, the sales guy was a bit of a weirdo. I think he was on something. He seemed imcapable
of explaining anything about the phone, and found it hard to transfer my stuff to the new sim. I will have to wait until the sim is activated by o2, to see if he has lost anything. Oh well, cant get them staff these days.

[Trainman]

When your driving setup a call divert to the car phone so it automatically diverts to the car when your driving.. but then remember to switch call divert back off after your journey...

There is another slightly different alternative, you can set your phone to divert after, say 3 rings, it then diverts to the car (PAYG sim with different number) and you can answer it using the controls on the steering and be totally legal.

From what you've said it sounds like you have the RT4 head unit, and this is what I do with mine in the C6, it's just something for you to ponder.......

That way you don't have to tell anybody the 'car number' and everybody still calls your original mobile.

[qprdude]

Worth thinking about trainman, but I reckon I'd need to divert after 23 rings not 3.
By the time I hear the phone , remember which pocket it's hidden in, fish it out and answer it, at a 3 ring divert, I'd miss every single call! (unless I was in the car of course)

[Hell Razor5543]

Ah, but then what you need to do is to enable the divert before you start driving, and disable it when you are not driving.

[Trainman]

No you don't, not if you leave enough rings for you to be happy with, it's a configurable setting

[citroenxm]

When your driving setup a call divert to the car phone so it automatically diverts to the car when your driving.. but then remember to switch call divert back off after your journey...

[Hell Razor5543]

With some phones it is possible to switch between profiles. I wonder if it were possible for your phone to do this, and then to configure a profile to be setup to divert to the car SIM when you select it. Then (if this works) when you get into the car, select that profile, and when you get out, switch back to the normal profile.