My dad just renewed his Optus Mobile Plan which includes 5GB of 3G data/internet access per month. He is using a very basic phone because he is a tradie and doesn't want a 'touch screen'; these "builder's phones" are known to be very rugged and durable but often lack many of the technologies and features of smart phones. He wants me to find a way that we can use and share his data usage across our mobile devices. One crude solution would be to physically transfer his simcard to my phone every time we want to use mobile 3G but this is fiddly and we may miss important calls and stuff. I looked into tethering but I don't think his phone(Samsung B2700) supports this feature. I was wondering whether it would be possible to duplicate his simcard which would allow me to swap it in my phone, put it into one of those wifi usb dongles and into a tablet or laptop for the same purpose. Is there an easy way to basically take/share his 3G data usage from his phone without actually removing the sim card from the phone(so he can be using his phone for basic stuff like calls and text)?
3G Mobile Sharing Dillemma
Last edited 28/05/2012 - 16:01
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Yeah, just change his service to a basic voice service come renewal time and get your data separately. Too fiddly otherwise. Also it's better for him to stick to a basic phone. Despite the attractions of a smartphone, a dumb phone beats it on battery life, and you wouldn't want him to miss calls due to a dead battery would you?
We will research what other plans they have but from memory the 3G data was included with the bundle as a unlimited talk/text plan with Optus, not sure if they offer the same deal without data. Yes, battery life is very important to him because he is a heavy user and gets many calls per day. Battery life is the Achilles Heel of Android phones, IMO.
There is one way to avoid swapping SIMs if you want to tether to his phone by USB cable. Some 3G dumb phones have 3G modem capability, maybe his model does. If you plug the micro USB end to the phone and the USB end to the computer, it's as if you plugged in a USB 3G modem. My venerable Nokia can turn into a 3G modem this way, but I never used this feature as I didn't have a data plan and packet data is exorbitant, and now I have a smartphone with a data SIM.
What greenpossum said
I vaguely remember hearing about an optus promo that allowed you to share your data with your friends or something, but all I can dig up are these:
you can share data with other people in your business
https://www.optusbusiness.com.au/shop/sharedbusinessfleetyou can share prepaid credit with a friend
https://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobilephones/prepaidcreditopti…Thanks for the responses guys. Not much I can do at this stage but keep using his simcard in my phone on an ad-hoc basis when required. Most situations when we need his 3G data is when he isn't working, like on weekends when we are away from home and go camping or on road trips, therefore his phone will be mostly idle/unused(and subsequently not getting hundreds of calls) so I can buy him a cheap Android phone to temporarily swap sims or use in my phone for this purpose. Good enough I say!
My suggestion would be a motorola defy and put it in a otterbox case.
or one of these http://www.clove.co.uk/smartphones/jcb-toughphone
You could set your dad's number to divert to yours when it's not available/unreachable (ie while you're taking the SIM out or it's in a USB dongle/non-phone device), that way no calls in theory would be missed.
It might prove to be an expensive exercise though if there's a long call.
It's a business phone so the expenses are not too much of a worry.
Great idea!
My gut feeling would be no, my first bet in trying to achieve something like that would be trying to organise a second service and having the data allowance transferred from one to another. However I don't believe any telco really offers this, so it's not really in their best interest to offer it.
He'd have been better to try and negotiate for the data on a separate service at renewal time.