Mobile Phones - How come you can't have more than 1 with the same number

[IM469]

It's called SIM cloning. But it's not allowed on any wireless carrier I know of and outlawed in most countries.

It makes it hard for law enforcement to pin point your location And rumour has it that they use this technology to eavesdrop on ppl too.

In order for you to receive a call, the GSM network must know your location. Your phone logs into the the network as soon as it is powered up (except 'flight mode'). If you had two phones - they would be both be 'tracked'. Only one call can be answered in one location without creating problems but it would suite your purpose since you would only want to use one.

The problem is that GSM SIM cards after 2004 are extremely difficult to break (duplicate). That is why the both the NSA & British Intelligence have been accused of trying to infiltrate one of the leading SIM card manufacturers to get SIMs produced that they can hack.

 

[GPIDEAL]

Get a Single Number Reach phone number from Bell, and then log into their web site, and call forward that number to the cell phone closest to you.
Will cost you 25 for the SNR number, and whatever you pay for 3 cell phones.

Is that $25 per month? (We pay a monthly fee for SNRs for our business and fax land lines).

 

[GPIDEAL]

I belive the guy who sold just such a service—and fought the carriers and CRTC to do so—out of a storefront at Dav and Ave. went outta business.

From the customer PoV: If all three phones you had assigned your number to were switched on, sitting in places all over creation where you'd forgotten to take them with you and a call came in, how would you and the various carriers you'd bought the service from cope with helpful folks answering them and/or the same voicemail dropping into three different accounts? What if all three tried to originate calls simultaneously?

Still I could imagine a carrier offering a package that did all the smartphone stuff on their server via their net to which you could add as many dumb handsets as you wanted, with any two becoming dead slaves whenever the active one was in use. You'd need a PIN every time though.

I tried to say the same thing (lol). The mobile devices would have to know when the other one is engaged, assuming they are also turned on.

 

[losty]

You can get a phone number with Skype or some other VOIP service to use with all your mobile devices.

 

[JohnHenry]

Is that $25 per month? (We pay a monthly fee for SNRs for our business and fax land lines).

I haven't used them recently, but there were three price ranges (5 years ago) depending upon how you wanted faxes processed mostly. The most expensive was 45 at the time. You can have inbound faxes converted to emails, or log in to retrieve them.

 

[pusher69]

On the other hand, it is possible to have two different numbers on the same cellphone.

Yes, Dual SIM card phone.
China market sells them. There is a call button for each SIM and 1 end call button.