3G SIM in a 2G Phone?

ps3ud0 · 8 Oct 2007 at 19:20

Hi,

Stupid question - can you use a 3G SIM in a 2G phone? Just received the SIM for my new phone, but thats caused my original SIM to be barred and my new phone wont be here until Wednesday...

Phone in question is a 6230i...

ps3ud0 :cool:

Morba · 8 Oct 2007 at 19:30

no such thing as a 3g sim, there are different voltages though iirc

lsg1r · 8 Oct 2007 at 20:01

you should be ok putting a '3g' sim into a '2/2.5g' phone but you will not get the 3g speeds obviously. IIRC vodafone (and probably others) have been using '3g' sims for ages now and thats with the 2g phones too.

mame · 9 Oct 2007 at 10:12

Yes i did that. Had nokia 6280 as an upgrade, had to have new 3g sim at the same time. Didn't like the phone so sold it and had SE w810i for many months and it worked fine. Ended up having another 3g phone and the sim just went in there.

Faceman · 11 Oct 2007 at 07:22

I think you should be ok unless you have a three sim. Just got a new sim off three and it now does not work in an old 2g phone (the old one i lost was fine)

clv101 · 11 Oct 2007 at 07:43

Morba said:
no such thing as a 3g sim, there are different voltages though iirc

Sure there is, a UICC with a USIM is a "3G SIM".

ps3ud0 · 11 Oct 2007 at 08:34

Oops never reported back - yep it was fine - I think the only major difference was that the memory space is larger and it is termed a '3G SIM' not really because its anything related to 3G but they were rolled out at the same time so the term goes hand-in-hand...

They also should allows newer features to be enabled since '2G SIMs' wouldnt be aware of certain technologies...

ps3ud0 :cool:

Tunney · 11 Oct 2007 at 09:13

ps3ud0 said:
Oops never reported back - yep it was fine - I think the only major difference was that the memory space is larger and it is termed a '3G SIM' not really because its anything related to 3G but they were rolled out at the same time so the term goes hand-in-hand...

They also should allows newer features to be enabled since '2G SIMs' wouldnt be aware of certain technologies...

ps3ud0

3G USIMs are backwardly compatible.

They contain extra authentication modules needed to use 3G services, but the original SIM module is also present.

There's actually an even newer SIM standard, called ISIM, but it's not in use yet.

dakaiez · 11 Oct 2007 at 10:49

Yeah a 3g sim will work in a 2g phone. I stuck my 3g sim into some old phone i haven't used in years and it worked fine.

Dolph · 11 Oct 2007 at 11:40

The only phones that I've come across that won't work with 3g sims are the nokia 6230 and 3220 with certain software versions that just won't play, but generally, they are fully backwards compatible.

mrgubby · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:40

I tried the SIM from the local '3' shops managers phone in my O2 XDA miniS & it didn't work.

(phone worked with voadaphone / T-mobile / Orange SIMs)

Gavin · 12 Oct 2007 at 18:45

thats because that phone isnt 3g plus 3 are very fussy about which phones work with there sims and in fact its against there t+c's to use a sim in any other phone that the one they provide.

This stems back to the fact in the old days people were buying them when they were the cheapest contracts and putting the sims in 2g phones thus locking them to 3s roaming partner 02 and costing them (3) a bomb in extra charges

mrgubby · 12 Oct 2007 at 22:34

Gavin said:
thats because that phone isnt 3g plus 3 are very fussy about which phones work with there sims and in fact its against there t+c's to use a sim in any other phone that the one they provide.

This stems back to the fact in the old days people were buying them when they were the cheapest contracts and putting the sims in 2g phones thus locking them to 3s roaming partner 02 and costing them (3) a bomb in extra charges

The manager should've known that , it was his idea to try it !

divine` · 23 Oct 2007 at 09:51

Kieran said:
I've recently bought a SE K800i and stuck my old o2 online PAYG sim in it (it's about a year or two old). Is this going to limit what I can do with my '3G' phone? Thanks

Yes. Assuming that 'year or two' means the SIM is pre-3G.

Stuff like Video Calling probably won't work.

Or at least, that was the case for my mate.

clv101 · 23 Oct 2007 at 11:39

divine` said:
Stuff like Video Calling probably won't work.

Anything that uses the 3G physical layer won't work - you won't be able to connect to the 3G network. So no high data rate circuit switched bearers used for video calls and no high data rate packet switched bearers used for other data services. The only specific services you will lose will be video calling and mobile TV. Regular data access will work, just with the higher latency and lower data rates of the 2G network.