What do you do with your old mobiles?

silver

silver

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I know a lot of people like to have the latest mobile but i was wondering what happens to the ones you replace. I'm not a phone freak and mine is about 5 years old but i have been thinking about upgrading to a smartphone but i am not going to pay $500 or more for a bloody phone.
So....where do all the old phones go to die???
I am looking at getting a Samsung as i'm not interested in Apple stuff.
Can i simply change sim cards or are smartphone sims different?
 
Gidday Silver

Your existing SIM card will probably fit a new phone, only being 5 y.o.

Your Telco can transfer the data if it will not.

You can recycle old phones at a lot of places - Officeworks, Council, etc.

MAKE SURE that you do not leave the SIM card in it; and
WIPE the phone's memory ...

Agree with you about iPhones ...
 
silver said:
I am looking at getting a Samsung as i'm not interested in Apple stuff.
Click to expand...
I bought a new smart phone about 6 months ago (Samsung S2) & am very happy with it :raz:

silver said:
Can i simply change sim cards or are smartphone sims different?
Click to expand...
Ratbag said:
Your existing SIM card will probably fit a new phone, only being 5 y.o.
Click to expand...
Yes that is correct :iconwink:

However, I was advised to update my sim card as it was around 6-7 years old.
And yes it was free to do so :ebiggrin:

Just make sure you read the fine print (especially downloads & apps costs/fees :cool:)
The last thing you don't want, is to get stung, when you get your bill ;)

As Ratbag also said, make sure you don't leave the old sim card in the old phone & make sure you wipe the old phones memory.
I ended up destroying the old sim card myself, that way I new it was done & any of it's info couldn't get into the wrong hands.

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Gidday Mr T

The Samsung Galaxy II is a very good phone, but not sure if it gets the 'Blue Tick' for remote rural use. This is very important if you expect your phone to work in places like the local supermarket (I'm not kidding ... ).

The iPhone does get the blue tick, but it doesn't work! A friend at Narrandera was warned off the iPhone by Telstra because so many came back as not delivering the goods.

I used to have (still have - it works with 000 numbers, even without a SIM card in it ... ) a Motorola V6. It is a blue tick phone from around 4 years ago. Outside Narrandera, my mate's Blackberry had a 2 bar signal while my Motorola kept dropping off the network depending which way I was facing ... I could not have made a successful call using it.

So I replaced it with a Blackberry Torch 9810. It even works most of the way down the 300 m deep gullies at Bunyip SP.

Another phone worth considering is the HTC from Telstra. It also gets the blue tick, but is not quite as good as the Blackberry at hanging on to the signal.
 
I use a modded motorola defy, blue tick andall that crap (i've usualy reception when other haven't) and almost water proof (pulled it out of the washing machine ringing once) i tried that new beaut stuff, its all to fragile im not very nice to my phones i rather something i can just have in my pocket and go 4wding,mountainbiking or jump on the fire truck and not have to worry about. the motorola worked well with the modded andriod os, and is 2 years old and still going strong.

the old phones i've had that managed to last long enough to be replaced yet still worked either went in my desk draw or i gave them to my younger sister or a mate in a bind. Never really saw the point of recycling any, someones always looking for a phone

runs ozi explorer for mapping as well, I use it when im walking out bush or mountainbiking to track where i've been in case i get lost on a track, or 4wding when i dont have my tablet. used to take good photos my the camera's lens cover is scuffed from being in my pocket
 
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Ratbag said:
Gidday Silver

Your existing SIM card will probably fit a new phone, only being 5 y.o.

Your Telco can transfer the data if it will not.

You can recycle old phones at a lot of places - Officeworks, Council, etc.

MAKE SURE that you do not leave the SIM card in it; and
WIPE the phone's memory ...

Agree with you about iPhones ...
Click to expand...

Backup your data before you let the Telco's near it, I have heard of some disasters after the Telco's have fiddled with transferring your data.

Personally I lost a lot of my stored contacts and some messages when moving from a Telstra phone to a Telstra phone,
simply because the Salesperson screwed it up. Too late to complain after you have got home and they have binned your sim card (I know better these days).
I do my own backups beforehand these days and now use a "hand me down" Samsung i9000 Galaxy S.
 
I'm probably not going to do anything until i figure i have to but i went into a Telstra shop and an Optus shop in Bega yesterday. I have to say the Telstra shop people were really not interested in talking to me much even though there was nobody around but they did say that the older sims don't fit straight in but they do 'cut them down' to fit.
The Optus mob on the other hand were pretty helpful and advised me not to get the sim cut down but get a new one to fit.
They both said ebay is the place to go for the older phones but be careful.
They had the new Sony phone and both gave it good wraps. Apparently it has a good camera and is waterproof to 10mtrs or thereabouts.
I'll check out ebay today just as a matter of interest and will talk to my family later. Two of my nephews are in business and keep up with the trends. Maybe i can score one off them.
 
dont worry about the cut down to fit its really nothing bad, some of the new phones use the micro sim form factor which is a different sim card all together. If the telco ports you to a new sim all its doing is changeing the sim id in their system so your new one, so it links to the network under your client. it DOES NOT move any of the data saved to the sim (ie phone numbers messages etc) so save all your numbers to the phone.

Okay and last bit with telstra's next G network some sim cards need to be changed even if they are the same form factor, the actual sim chip is slightly different, some of the older sim cards (5 or more years old) only work on gsm and not utms (gsm tri-band = old stuff utms= nextg/3g/4g all it is is a different sigal type like uhf or hf) no point keeping an old sim card if it wont connect to the utms network, this is also where alot of people complain they cant get any reception since they changed the phone but not the card.

so in short form

sim = gsm
usim= utms/gsm
micro usim = ****ty little thing to fit in iphones
 
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I usually donate mine. Here in the states all phones have the 911 (emergency) operational with or without a sim card. The phones are given to women (and I assume men) who have orders of protection against their spouses.

My last phone I kept and use as a battery charger for the spare batteries for my new phone. They use the same batteries
 
mr turbo said:
However, I was advised to update my sim card as it was around 6-7 years old.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I have been wondering how long they last. My sim card is the same one that came with my first phone back in 1999 and 4 phones and 14 years later it is still working. It's now in my Samsung Galaxy Ace smart phone. I wonder if I can get my number changed over to the sim card that came with the Galaxy Ace? I'm on a prepaid with Telstra.
 
yep they can do that, best go into a telstra shop then ring them to do it though. bring in both sim's and ask to have it changed over.
 
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