Cell phones: One cell phone - 2 numbers?

thanks....

not in Europe! that would be cool to be able to do that!

2 numbers may be possible in the U.S. on different networks

Greetings,

If I'm not mistaken many phones in the U.S. can have two different numbers now but each number must be on a different network. For example, my LG Voyager Titanium phone allows me to select between two different NAMs (NAM1 and NAM2). "NAM" is the Number Assignment Module and it contains your phone's registration for a network.

I don't know if my phone has two SIM cards or not.

Best regards, WiredNot

(NT) correct (n/t)

The US is behind

The US is behind the rest of the world in much of the cell phone advances. I remember years ago that 60 Minutes (the TV show) was doing a story on the Netherlands (the land of Nokia) and cell phones, and they showed where many people were already using their cell phones for point-of-purchase devices. The Nokia phones (among others) had an infrared "beamer" on the top of the phone, and they just walk up to a machine (a soda machine was in the story, and one or two other coin-type machines too) and they just beam their phone at the machine and the soda would send out a soda (or whatever). The cell phone would charge back the price of the soda onto the person's cell phone bill. So, essentially the cell phone was a "wallet." Pretty cool. The Nokia cell phone that I had, at that time, had that infrared beamer, but it was not enabled.

Also a few years ago, a friend of mine had to go to the far-outback of Africa. There he was setting up a network for a worldwide electronics design, fabrication, assembly, and test company. He said the cell phone system, and even the land-line systems there, were years ahead of what he ever sees here in the US. And in so many other respects, the rest of the country, in that area, was a "3rd world."

One of the reasons is that here in the US we are saddled with old archaic systems, and the systems here are so embedded and needed that it just can't be thrown away. Whereas these new developing countries don't have anything old and useful. When it comes to technology they buy and install the latest and the greatest.

When it comes to Europe, well those people are willing to just "bite the bullet" usually, and just get on the new stuff bandwagon. They have few worries when it comes to obsoleting what is already in place. Of course, here in the US, we have laws about doing that. look at the years of preparation we needed to finally upgrade our TV system. Even now, that February 17 date in "switching off" the old NTSC over-the-air transmission is in jeopardy. Last I heard, that date is now being pushed off 4 more months!

Today's status of dual SIMs

Most probably the operators, who in most markets are phone makers' main customers, will not offer dual SIM phones (in the U.S.).
Aftermarket adapters are abundantly available that let you use two SIMs in one phone. But since the phone only has one set of transceivers, only one SIM can be active at a time. Some adapters let you program the phone for automatic switching at certain times of the day.
Two or three phone models do exist, with dual transceivers (two phones in one box). But then you get into compromising battery life, size/weight, having to buy the phone my mail-order etc. The practical option is still two phones with different ring tones.
The other advantage to carry two lines, business and private, is the correct use of Premium SMS services, such as buying bus/tram tickets etc.

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One cell phone 2 numbers?

Yes, Nextel is the only carrier so far that you can have two numbers on one device. But this is only good on their cell phones, not their blackberries. Again only Nextel, not Sprint. In fact they also do split billing. So your work number can be billed to the company and the personal line will be billed to you directly. But they share one voice mail box. You have to switch to line 1 or line 2. while you are on line 1 all the calls from line 2 go straight to voice mail and vice versa.