Function Of A Dual-Card Phone ...

After all the gripe about the missing data plan down under, one good thing about my phone is that it has dual-card facilities, which means I can use two lines and numbers simultaneously. When I bought my phone, I already know it has dual-card facilities, but I always thought that means we only need to put in two SIM cards in one phone instead of taking out and replacing the SIM card as per a normal phone.

 

I did not realise just how useful a dual-card phone is until I bought a local Australian number and put it into the second slot. I switched the default number to the Australian number and the default card to use as the second one, so I could call and text my brother and my relatives and not incur a heavy charge.

 

However, when I realised that people back home could call me even though my default number was the Australian number, I was pleasantly amazed! When I received calls back home, it was reflected under my original number, and when I receive calls from my brother and relatives, it was reflected under the Australian number!

 

Same goes for text messaging. I was able to receive text messages back home, and the original number would be reflected, ie the text was sent to my original number, and I was able to receive it on my phone. Similarly, when my brother and relatives sent me a text, I was able to receive their text messages and the Australian number would be reflected.

 

Am I confusing anyone? It took a while for me to register as well, but all I can say is this is really useful, as from this, one need not tell people if they are using an overseas number as people can just call and send a text with the original number and those can still be received even if one is using an overseas number! How good is that?

 

The only disadvantage is that, if I want to reply a text back home, I would have to switch back to the first SIM card and the original number in order to send the text, because the text was sent to my original number, so I could not send out the overseas text in my Australian number. Same goes for calling. If I needed to call people back home, I would need to switch back to the original SIM card and number as my Australian number does not allow me to call overseas.

 

Still, this is a good breakthrough in technology. Perhaps in time to come, there can be several numbers stored in one phone, then one need not keep changing phones and numbers as the phone can truly become all-in-one!