Daniel ([info]e_dan) wrote,
@ 2009-04-05 19:38:00
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Current location:Kirmish's
Current mood: confused

Does anyone know about unlocked phones and 3 SIMs and GPS and stuff?
Quick call for any tech knowledge as I'm woefully under informed on this one.

- I've got a '3' phone account. I'm going to buy, outright, an unlocked Nokia 5800. I know that the SIM will work in the phone as it's 3G and supports their USIM thingie, which is to say I know it will work for phone calls.

What I want to know is 2 things:

- First, given that the 5800 has GPS, how does phone GPS work? Is it linked to the phone service provider? Does it need to download things from the internet? Or will the phone GPS work whether it's got a SIM card in or not?

- Second, will I be able to connect to the web? Will the 5800 just be able to use SIM info to connect, or do I have to have all the special 'Planet 3' software loaded to access the web, download email etc.


(13 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]cricketk
2009-04-05 10:55 am UTC (link)
If no-one knows, how about the phone shop people?

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[info]e_dan
2009-04-05 01:50 pm UTC (link)
Heh - have you ever tried asking a person in a 3 store a technical question? Or phoning them to ask a technical question? I've tried both, and got no sort of an answer. Also tried phoning people at Mo's Mobiles and All Phones, who tend to be a little clue-ier, and their opinion was that I'd probably be able to get the internet stuff working yes, maybe, with enough fiddling. Perhaps. I've also hit online a lot, and got all sorts of conflicting answers. About the only clear thing is that I now think that the GPS will probably work. xx

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[info]japester
2009-04-05 11:05 am UTC (link)
GPS is not tied to the cellular network. It's tied to the GPS satellite network. There is this useful addition called AGPS (assisted GPS), which uses extra information available from the cellmobile towers to assist with positioning accuracy.
GPS will work whether the SIM card is in or not, providing the phone lets you turn it on without a SIM. They should download a little web traffic. The GPS device can update its knowledge of where the satellites should be, which helps with its initialisation sequence. It's about 100kB a week, IIRC.

If it's internet enabled, then it might 'just work'. Mine did for web browsing out of the box but for some other things, it was weird.
I had the option of connecting to about 4 different Optus data networks and had to work out which one allowed what protocols. I don't know if 3 is any different.
You will need a data plan attached to you phone contract. Otherwise it's GPRS data rates, which are hideously over priced. No extra software required. The phone and the phone provider should provide you with the providential bits of software.

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[info]e_dan
2009-04-05 01:53 pm UTC (link)
Excellent, thanks - as I'm in Melbourne, GPS would be right useful about now ;)

Yeah, can't get any sort of a solid answer on whether the 'net will work generally, but consensus seems to be 'probably yes', with a few hacks.

In terms of the data plan, yes indeed - I'll go off and investigate some of that now. I attempted to investigate this yesterday but 3 only seemed to want to tell me about what I could do on Planet 3, not how I could download lots of bytey things.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]tikiwanderer
2009-04-05 11:44 am UTC (link)
My unlocked non-3 phone can't connect to the web in its current state, because it doesn't have the Planet 3 stuff. I haven't found if there's a workaround for this, I was just told this by a 3 customer service person and haven't looked into it as I don't use the data services anyway. (My phone came with all the software to use Bigpond and Foxtel through Telstra, which also doesn't work seeing as I'm not on the Telstra network :-) I don't know if this is just a software issue and I could load new software, or if it's related to the phone hardware.

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[info]e_dan
2009-04-05 01:54 pm UTC (link)
Cool, thanks - I'm likely going to be on the hunt for a workaround, I'll keep you in da loop xx

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]thorfinn
2009-04-06 02:46 am UTC (link)
Provided your 3G account has a data plan attached to it, and you can get your provider to send your phone the right configuration details for that 3g data, then the phone's Internet fu should work.

That said - how easy that is to do really varies. Having just had a quick poke at three.com.au, it's absolutely useless for finding information easily. I think I found some useful bits:

http://www.three.com.au/cs/ContentServer?homeId=1156241342637&c=Page&pagename=Three%2FPage%2FCustCareGettingMorePageTemplate&p=1155025228809&cid=1155886580611&mobileId=1236149940760&mobilename=Nokia&modelNum=5800

Accessing Internet on handset - Nokia 5800

How to access the internet - Nokia 5800
To access the internet: you will need to subscribe to a mobile web pack. Go to the
mobile web icon on the Planet 3 homepage and follow the instructions to
subscribe.
• Press Menu
• Select Settings
• Select Connectivity
• Select Admin Settings
• Select Packet Data
• Packet Data Connection = When Needed
• Access Point = 3netaccess
• Select Back
• Select Back
• Select Destinations
• Select Internet
• Select Options
• Select Edit
• Connection Name = Planet 3
• Data Bearer = Packet Data
• Access Point Name = 3services
• User Name = None
• Prompt Password = No
• Password = ****
• Authentication = Normal
• Homepage = http://three.net.au/hb/nokian5800/HutchKey
• Use Access Point Automatically = Automatically

How to switch back to Planet 3 - Nokia 5800
• Press Menu
• Select Settings
• Select Connectivity
• Go to Destinations
• Scroll to and select Internet
• Select Options
• Select Edit
• Connection Name = Planet 3
• Data Bearer = Packet Data
• Access Point Name = 3services
• User Name = None
• Prompt Password = No
• Password = ****
• Authentication = Normal
• Homepage = http://three.net.au/hb/nokia5800/HutchKey
• Use Access Point Automatically = Automatically



GPS as already described, not attached to your provider.

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[info]e_dan
2009-04-06 11:06 am UTC (link)
Excellent, thank's Thorfy. Various more info agrees that if I buy one of the stoopid 'I love anal sex with 3's boring internet sites ooh yeah' packages then it ALSO gives me the ability to ignore 3 and access the wider 'web.

Good.

I had a play with a working the 5800 today. First impressions are that it's a really superb device, and is probably about to do me instead of waiting for one of the newer iPhones later this year.

Cheers, Dan

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]strangedave
2009-04-06 04:17 am UTC (link)
GPS positioning is phone network independent, and doesn't require a SIM for raw positioning, but the GPS software probably downloads maps via the phone data network which does require a SIM.

As others have said, the phone should work fine, but you will want a data plan and may need to do weird configuration things to make it work correctly.


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[info]e_dan
2009-04-06 11:08 am UTC (link)
Cheers Dave - as mentioned above, after what you and Thorfy and others said plus various other investigations it seems that if I buy one of the stoopid 'I love anal sex with 3's boring internet sites ooh yeah' packages then it ALSO gives me the ability to ignore 3 and access the wider 'web. Also, the GPS stuff is independent, yes.

Now to decide whether I want to go with the 5800 NOW or get an iPhone later in the year when the next model comes along with better bluetooth etc.

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[info]strangedave
2009-04-06 03:24 pm UTC (link)
The main thing with the iPhone is probably the software update, that will go on existing phones anyway. Hardware changes are unlikely to change functionality much.

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[info]julietk
2009-04-14 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Hello! This comment is entirely unrelated to the matter of GPS & phones & so forth, about which sadly I know very little. You guys get back OK yesterday? (It took us nearly 13 hours; I'm more or less propping my eyelids up with matchsticks this morning.)

Anyway, I was intending to drop you an email, but then I figured that the email address on your profile might be out of date since you moved. Perhaps you could provide this information? (Mine's juliet@earth.li.)

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[info]kanagatis
2009-08-20 07:07 am UTC (link)
Hai,
If U want the unlocking code for your mobile using this unlocksolutions.

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