Rest easy, iPad roamers: O2 and Orange have micro SIM orders, too
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 28th 2010 8:28PM
posted January 28th 2010 8:28PM
Steve mentioned in his iPad preso yesterday that he was pretty confident the company would have international data deals locked up by June or July of this year -- but since the thing uses some wacky new micro SIM standard, carriers that intend to support it are going to need to get the new chips in stock after having used traditional SIMs for nearly twenty years. That makes moving your iPad around between carriers and your SIM between devices that much harder, but we've got a sliver of good news here: we're hearing from a tipster with connections at supplier Gemalto that O2 and Orange both have micro SIM orders in the pipeline. That doesn't necessarily mean that Apple is going to be trumpeting them as iPad partners with special data plans, of course -- but even if they aren't, at least they'll have the necessary equipment ready for you if you want to use your unlocked tablet on their airwaves. Gemalto also has outstanding orders with T-Mobile and AT&T (of course), so yeah -- it might be a long road, but we're hopeful that these will start to become commonplace over the next few years.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
@doctorrobert SIM Card. don't know how that happened
Is there any way of hacking this shit to run XP, W7 or lunix,
@Sarcasme Sure, same way you do it on your iPhone/iPod Touch...It's a big Touch
@Sarcasme no it runs a ARM processor, meaning you can run android and linux on it :)
@Sarcasme or wince, now that would be funny!
The iPad sux blood!
iCare not.iPass.I wish it was a computer.boo hooo
Why no multitask Apple? , Flash I could sort of live w/out but no point owning a device that does one thing at a time for me.
@iPaul Multitasking with iPhone apps on the iPad could be interesting. Imagine having a ton of flashlight apps tiled across the screen.
Ooooohhhh, precioussss iPad. I'd been missssing you sooooooo. Eight articlesssss have passsed since you were lasst reported on. Pleasse never leave me again!
I await for the person who by bypasses the microSIM :)
Is the framework of this majorly different from the current sim? Because if not, I foresee several hundred chinese adaptors flooding ebay in the near future.
@Reluttr
micro Sims are smaller than current Sims... so there will unfortunately be no adapters to use your current Sim in the iPad, and this is certainly a deliberate strategy.
@kazak I think he means the other way around, using an iPad SIM in another device.
@benjgvps Your right, I meant going from the tiny sim to the bigger one.
Although thinking about it, even though it wouldn't look very good, if the frameworks are simular they could probably put the contacts on something the same size as the mini-sim and have wires lead out to a standard Sim holder. Kinda like what they did on that iphone case that lets you have Duel Sims.
I predict this will be just like the battery... locked away so tight you need to send it to an Apple service center and wait 2-3 weeks + $85 charge to get your international sim put in.
Will Apple make a different iPad 3G version that works with the European HSDPA 3G frequency bands? What about the T-Mobile 3G bands in the U.S.?
Bottom line is that contract-free or not, this announced iPad 3G does not seem useful on any carrier other than AT&T. Likewise any version made for T-Mobile won't be useful elsewhere. And an international version made for the European bands won't be useful in the U.S.
So *if* the decision to use Micro SIM is an AT&T lock-in, it seems redundant given that there's already a frequency band lock-in???
@beq The iPad has tri-band UMTS bands. 850 is not just AT&T, but also used in Australia, S. America, & Canada. 1900 and 2100 band covers most operators in Europe and Asia, even Japan. So yeah, the iPad is not AT&T only.
1700 band on the other hand is more specific to T-Mo US (and a provider in Canada, I think), that's it. A quad-band UMTS would be nice, but I have yet to see any hardware that has quad-band UMTS.
@pika2000 I thought that most of Europe uses something like 900/1800/2100, whereas this iPad 3G meant for AT&T uses 850/1900/2100 (only one band in common)? And doesn't Japan even use other bands like 800?
So it would seem that the currently announced model would not be able to take full advantage of 3G on other carriers?
For example I recall that when the old AT&T Wireless (or was it Cingular) started adding 3G on the 850 band to complement the existing 1900 band, my old phone could not use 850 and thus got less reliable coverage depending on where I was...
Why should they change the type of the sim card to use. Now this is gonna be difficult for many people. Yeah sure the service providers would order for the new sim cards. Its all business for them. Selling a new type of sim on new contracts. So are there any saying that more and more devices that support this new sim will be available this year, or is it only exclusive for the gigantic iPhone
@bubs353 When I went into an AT&T store to change my SIM card into a newer one, they give it to me for free. So what's the problem?
@pika2000
You mean they exchange your old sim to a new smaller sim for free? If that is the case there is no problem. But will other service providers do the same.If they do too its all okay. No problem.
This is another present from Apple to the Carriers.
As for the tethering which can be managed as an extra with specific plans (which isn't the case with other phones), this micro SIM will physically prevent users from using their current data plan which is associated to a standard SIM in the iPad.
It will simply force you to take another data plan, specific to the iPad unless carriers provide you for free another microSim using the same data plan you currently have.
I really doubt they will:
As it is the case for tethering where there is no legitimate reason for asking you to pay some extra (at least in France since the so-called "unlimited plans" are capped by a fair-use anyway so who cares from which device you are downloading the data), there is no legitimated reason to let the carrier charge more just because you use your plan in different phones (today i can use the SIM i have in my iPhone in any other smartphone or 3G USB stick)
When will they stop believing the consumers are stupid ?
@pika2000: i doubt they changed it for a microSIM, they just changed it to a more 3G compliant and greater phonebook capacity SIM. By the way why did they change it ? probably it was very old.
But today all SIMs used in Iphones and other recent smartphones would perfectly work in a 3G iPad. I definitely believe this choice of microSIM is some kind of HW lock to tie specific iPad plans to the device (until MicroSIM becomes widespread in other devices... but this gives a couple of years to the carriers to surf on the iPad revenue wave )
Meh, not so much of a problem - if I got one of these, I'd use wifi router mode on my WinMo phone and use it's data plan (not a lot of places I'd have that huge thing and not have a phone in my pocket)
Not just Apple. Why does the phone industry in general have to have so many damn standards. Memory cards, power connectors, USB sockets, expansion sockets, headphone/mic sockets, expansion soockets. And now SIM designs. FFS stop it. Nokia especially. Do not want yet another USB socket design.
Come on guys.. micro sims. I gues dealextreme and all othr china sites ill sell u a programer and empty simcard to clone onto by the time we can buy the ipad.
Who has not or does not know of some one who cloned simcards in the good old days of first ever hacked iphone..