# Dual SIM Phones



## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

Has anyone looked into these? It would mean keeping your personal and business life separate without having to carry two phones. Blu is a relatively new cell phone company in Florida that is developing these. I've sent emails back and forth to their reps asking about them. 

They recommended this one. But I looked through the specs and it does not support email. 










I've read reviews on a bunch of other dual SIM phones and they all seem to be real broken down models. They are all missing something that most modern phones have, such as GPS, email, or they'll run really slow.

I asked them about this one. It's got dual SIM, a 3.2M camera, and all the right features. But they said it won't be available until the end of the year.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Or you could get an Android phone and use Google Voice. I have 1 phone, 2 numbers, 2 contact lists and 2 calendars. They all integrate and it works seamlessly as a single phone.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

angus242 said:


> Or you could get an Android phone and use Google Voice. I have 1 phone, 2 numbers, 2 contact lists and 2 calendars. They all integrate and it works seamlessly as a single phone.


Huh? do you have a link showing how that works? And does it work with At&t?


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

KennMacMoragh said:


> Huh? do you have a link showing how that works? And does it work with At&t?


You can use multiple Google accounts with an Android phone. I have 1 personal and 1 business (Google Apps, actually). From the phone you see 1 contact list and 1 calendar although the contacts and calendars are the combination of the 2 Google accounts.

Google Voice is a virtual number. Let's say your Google number is 865.555.1212. When someone calls that number, you decide where the call goes. Since I use my Google Voice number as my business mobile number, it rings my phone. However, I can also have calls forwarded to my business number. You have your own voicemail for the GV number so if someone calls, even though it rings your cell phone, the voice mail will go to GV (you can set up a business message). You will then get a text-translated text from GV to your phone. 

You can also make calls from your GV number via the Android phone. As far as I know, these calls do not go against your mobile minutes (as if you made a call from your real cell number).

It may be confusing but I assure you, that's how I use my phone and it works just as described. Look up Android phones at AT&T's site. I'm sure there are a few good choices.

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

Thanks for the input. Can you tell with the caller i.d if you are getting a personal call or a business call from your GV? So you know whether to anticipate a business call? And when you call someone else, what number shows up on their caller i.d? Your personal number or your GV business number?

I've been reading what you posted and a few other articles I found. But so far all I've seen is how to set it up with one number and multiple phones. Nothing yet on how to configure it to work with one phone, two numbers.


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## rock16 (Feb 25, 2010)

angus242 said:


> Or you could get an Android phone and use Google Voice. I have 1 phone, 2 numbers, 2 contact lists and 2 calendars. They all integrate and it works seamlessly as a single phone.


I do the exact same thing on a htc evo and it works great. I retired the blackberry 2 weeks ago but it also had a google voice app and had two numbers.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

KennMacMoragh said:


> Thanks for the input. Can you tell with the caller i.d if you are getting a personal call or a business call from your GV? So you know whether to anticipate a business call? And when you call someone else, what number shows up on their caller i.d? Your personal number or your GV business number?


When you receive a call from the Google number, the app lets you know it's from there.

When you make a call, I have my phone set up to ask me how I want to route it, cell or Google number. The caller ID will show whichever number you call from.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

rock16 said:


> I do the exact same thing on a htc evo and it works great. I retired the blackberry 2 weeks ago but it also had a google voice app and had two numbers.


Where did you find the blackberry google voice app? I entered google voice in the search in the blackberry app world and nothing came up. I saw google talk, but not google voice.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

I tried setting up a google voice account, but it looks like it doesn't work with At&t. In the process I got this error message:

"Ooops! We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers."

If I understand this right, I can only use google voice light with At&t. Which means I would only get a few options, or I could create a new google phone number and cancel one of the numbers that I have. Which would mean telling everyone I know that my old number is no good. It says number porting works with Sprint, is that the only carrier it works with?


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Sign up from here:
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

Hmm, the sign up screen from your link looked just like the one I used, but this time it says it will work. Is the $20 a one time fee? And why does it say I have to request a new number? Isn't the idea of number porting to make it so you can keep your old number? It still looks suspicious, not sure if I want to try it or not, here is what it says:

Congratulations.Your mobile number can be ported.

Things to understand before porting your number to Google Voice:
The cost of porting is $20.00 (payable through Google Checkout).
Your mobile phone service plan will be terminated when you port your number to Google Voice and your carrier may charge you an early termination fee.
Once porting is complete, you will not be able to receive calls to your mobile phone until you complete the following steps:
Google Voice is not a mobile phone service provider, so you must setup a new mobile phone service plan (with your existing carrier or a new carrier) and request a new number.
Once you've secured a new mobile service plan and a new number, you will need to add this new number to your Google Voice account as a forwarding phone.
You may be unable to receive text messages for up to 3 business days after the porting process is complete.
Your Google Voice number will be replaced by the number you are porting. It will remain on your account for 90 days.
I understand the risks associated with porting my number to Google Voice and want to continue with the porting process.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

I got a new number. Now my business number and GV number are 1 number off:

555.123.4567
555.124.4567


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

I don't know if you'll get the full functionality of Google Voice on a blackberry.


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## rock16 (Feb 25, 2010)

angus242 said:


> I don't know if you'll get the full functionality of Google Voice on a blackberry.


on the blackberry I had two separate voice mails. One for voice and one for the voice number. On the Evo I have all of my voice mail on on google voice. That is the biggest difference that I see as far as functionality.

And to answer the question where I downloaded voice it was in the blackberry app store. My carrier was sprint BB8350i


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

angus242 said:


> I got a new number. Now my business number and GV number are 1 number off:
> 
> 555.123.4567
> 555.124.4567





angus242 said:


> I don't know if you'll get the full functionality of Google Voice on a blackberry.


Wow, that first number would be easy to remember. I suppose I could get a new number, it would mean I'd have to tell everyone my new number which would be a hassle. But I don't understand why they give you the option to set up number porting if you have to get a new number anyway. 

Yeah I don't know if it will work right on a Blackberry either. That's why I'm not sure if I want to change my number and my whole service plan when I don't even know if it will work.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Those numbers are fictitious but the real numbers are just 1 off like that.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

rock16 said:


> on the blackberry I had two separate voice mails. One for voice and one for the voice number. On the Evo I have all of my voice mail on on google voice. That is the biggest difference that I see as far as functionality.
> 
> And to answer the question where I downloaded voice it was in the blackberry app store. My carrier was sprint BB8350i


I found it on the google voice website where it had a link that sent another link to your phone, then it installed the app itself. 

Did you already have two phone numbers (business and personal) before you switched to google voice? Or did you get a brand new google voice number when you signed up?


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

Back to the Duel Sim, are both numbers active at the same time without having to turn one off for the other to ring?

I ask because 20 years ago we had what they called Duel Nam phones, two phone numbers, one phone. The ***** was you either had one number on and the other off or vice versa. I only used it to get two area codes...thought I was important back then, but when you switched between lines you checked messages first, real pain to always do that. Or the other ***** was you had to use two different carriers, one carrier couldn't give you two numbers on the same phone.


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## rock16 (Feb 25, 2010)

KennMacMoragh said:


> I found it on the google voice website where it had a link that sent another link to your phone, then it installed the app itself.
> 
> Did you already have two phone numbers (business and personal) before you switched to google voice? Or did you get a brand new google voice number when you signed up?


I got a new number when I signed up for voice. I call friends in Zimbabwe and South Africa quite a bit and google has the best rates that I have found.

I think I installed it the same way on the BB now that I think about it. The Evo was a download from the android store.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

Chris Johnson said:


> Back to the Duel Sim, are both numbers active at the same time without having to turn one off for the other to ring?
> 
> I ask because 20 years ago we had what they called Duel Nam phones, two phone numbers, one phone. The ***** was you either had one number on and the other off or vice versa. I only used it to get two area codes...thought I was important back then, but when you switched between lines you checked messages first, real pain to always do that. Or the other ***** was you had to use two different carriers, one carrier couldn't give you two numbers on the same phone.


I would think you could keep them both active but I don't know. Now that I think about it, maybe the reason dual SIM phones are not popular in the United States is because you can use Google Voice instead. I read somewhere that in Europe these phones are widely used because you can travel to different countries and switch carriers, making it cheaper. 



rock16 said:


> I got a new number when I signed up for voice. I call friends in Zimbabwe and South Africa quite a bit and google has the best rates that I have found.
> 
> I think I installed it the same way on the BB now that I think about it. The Evo was a download from the android store.


Yeah the number porting looks complex, I'd probably have to ask At&t about it. How did the features work on your Blackberry phone? The app won't let me try anything out until I sign up for an account, pay their fee, and re-arrange my whole calling plan. So I'm not sure if I want to sign up yet. Here is what I think I want it to do:

- Show me what phone line the person is calling from whether it's my business or personal line. So I know whether to anticipate a business related call. 

- Let me choose which number will show up on the other person's caller I.D when I make a call. So friends don't get my work number, and so people I work with don't get my personal number.

- Set up a voice mail message for work and a different one for personal.

- The option to silence one of the phone lines while keeping the other one active, and the option to keep them both active when I want.


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