Anyone here use Vodafone Multi-SIM?

[richb]

My new car came with a built-in phone so I've just got my "Multi-SIM" from Vodafone and it's OK in that it works but it's a bit of a pain having to enter the various codes necessary to nominate which SIM is required to receive calls. I am told to enter *131*2# to nominate the car (SIM 2) and then enter *131# to re-nominate my mobile. The problem is that if I leave home in the car and leave my mobile behind I am unable to nominate the car to receive calls - this seems a bit daft but the code to nominate the second SIM has to be sent from the active SIM which is of course (at that time) still my mobile... Has anyone found a way round this problem? It's seems like a good system that's only half thought out and all a bit fiddly. Anyone else used it and got any thoughts or comments? Cheers Rich...

[sybaseian]

richb said:

My new car came with a built-in phone so I've just got my "Multi-SIM" from Vodafone and it's OK in that it works but it's a bit of a pain having to enter the various codes necessary to nominate which SIM is required to receive calls. I am told to enter *131*2# to nominate the car (SIM 2) and then enter *131# to re-nominate my mobile. The problem is that if I leave home in the car and leave my mobile behind I am unable to nominate the car to receive calls - this seems a bit daft but the code to nominate the second SIM has to be sent from the active SIM which is of course (at that time) still my mobile... Has anyone found a way round this problem? It's seems like a good system that's only half thought out and all a bit fiddly. Anyone else used it and got any thoughts or comments? Cheers Rich...

Forward all calls to secondary mobile when unanswered and just let the first phone ring on to divert.

No messing with SMS codes.

My first phone is an XDAIIi on o2 which I also use for Tomtom, second phone is on virgin pre-pay and worked fine in France at Le Mans until the second phone ran out of credits. Quick call to virgin and normal service was resumed.

Edited by sybaseian on Friday 23 June 16:10

[richb]

Humm... not sure how that would work because both SIMs have the same phone number as they are clones of each other. How can I divert one to the other? Rich...

[Smartie]

I considered multisim but didn't bother for exactly this reason.

Orange has a similar system but diverts to no2 sim if no1 isn't available - much better idea!

You may consider just getting a PAYG vodafone sim instead to divert to and withold your number on the car - thats what i do!

You also lose GPRS if i remember right?

[russ35]

richb,

You can use *131# from either phone. This will nominate the phone you typed the code on.

*131*x# where x is the sim id of the phone you want to nominate

*#130# will tell you the sim id of that phone

*#131# will tell you which sim id is currently active.

Remember you can use either phone to make an outgoing call, but only the nominated phone gets the incoming calls.

I use multi sim for the same reason, nokia car kit in the car and a PDA phone for out of the car.

[richb]

russ35 said:

richb, You can use *131# from either phone. This will nominate the phone you typed the code on.

Thanks Russ, that's how I read the instructions but it doesn't seem to work. Perhaps I'm not doing it properly? Did you have any problems at all??

[richb]

p.s. Must be something odd going on because if I put SIM2 in my mobile and send *131# I can nominate it but when it's in my car phone it doesn't work, SIM1 remains the nominated SIM. Odd... sounds like a call to Vodafone is required. Rich...

[BossCerbera]

I'm a Vodafone Multi Sim user. Pressing *131# on whichever phone I want to use makes that phone the nominated receiver. Any can be used to dial out at all times, whether nominated or not.

The various other versions of *131# on this thread are news to me. Have made a note for future ref! Cheers!

[Andyht]

I've had Multi-sim in three cars, and it's always been a pain - no way of activating in the car that I know of (Porsche Mobile 1 & 2 systems)

[richb]

Yeah, I've been using it for 6 months now and that's what I've found. I have to press *131*2# from my handset to activate the 2nd SIM in the car. It works ok because I've set it up as a short dial on my handset but I can't get the *131# working from the car, only the handset. Rich...

[BossCerbera]

In-car compatibility technologies are a considerable way behind the devices they are/were designed to be compatible with. Anything built in a car as OE is, IMHO/experience, going to cause problems as the car ages and the portable devices progress.

I've never had any multi-SIM problems but then neither is a car phone. I know my brother had loads of problems getting a particular phone network to function properly in his VW Phaeton so I guess there's another variable in the mix: "which phone network?"

I think early Bluetooth cars are likely to be problematic in a few years time too.

[richb]

I change my everyday car very frequently and for simplicity always spec a built in OE phone. I agree it's probabaly causing the issues but ho-hum it's not much of an issue.