A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.

Can he freely move the SIM card between phones or is there a delay or
other complication if he does this? My thought was to buy a PAYG phone
and divert his main number to that but I said I would ask if there is
a method of linking two phones to the same number?

Scott wrote:

> A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
> purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
> run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
> resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.

That will likely be the answer he'll get from all providers nowadays,
but a few years ago (10 or more) a friend of mine *did* have a mobile
phone and a permanently wired car phone on the same number. He had to
take care not to turn both of them on at the same time.

> Can he freely move the SIM card between phones

yes, but I suspect the contacts on SIM slots aren't rated for a high
number of changes, some phones need s reboot to see changed SIMs, I
think my last couple haven't.

> or is there a delay or
> other complication if he does this?

not really

> My thought was to buy a PAYG phone
> and divert his main number to that but I said I would ask if there is
> a method of linking two phones to the same number?

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Scott wrote:
>
> > A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
> > purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
> > run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
> > resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.
>
> That will likely be the answer he'll get from all providers nowadays,
> but a few years ago (10 or more) a friend of mine *did* have a mobile
> phone and a permanently wired car phone on the same number. He had to
> take care not to turn both of them on at the same time.

There are special contracts that let you do that, eg to have the same number
on a phone and a smartwatch. Typically you get one SIM and the other is
provisioned via eSIM. Generally you pay an arm and a leg for them though.

There are also systems like:
https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/sip2sim/
where you can have multiple mobiles that are effectively extensions off the
same (virtual) PABX, and can be configured to ring both phones for incoming
calls etc. Probably overkill for most people.

Theo

On Wednesday, 14 June 2023 at 12:37:27 UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:
> Scott wrote:
>
> > A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
> > purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
> > run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
> > resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.
> That will likely be the answer he'll get from all providers nowadays,
> but a few years ago (10 or more) a friend of mine *did* have a mobile
> phone and a permanently wired car phone on the same number. He had to
> take care not to turn both of them on at the same time.

IIRC that was Vodafone. AFAIK they stopped doing it.

> > Can he freely move the SIM card between phones
> yes, but I suspect the contacts on SIM slots aren't rated for a high
> number of changes, some phones need s reboot to see changed SIMs, I
> think my last couple haven't.

Maybe an eSIM, you can then choose if the eSIM is active or not.

> > or is there a delay or
> > other complication if he does this?
> not really
> > My thought was to buy a PAYG phone
> > and divert his main number to that but I said I would ask if there is
> > a method of linking two phones to the same number?

Obviously on an unlimited minutes contract diverting all calls is no cost. He can use Voip to phone out on the original mobile's number. Unaware of any method to do this for texts though.

On 14/06/2023 12:16, Scott wrote:
> A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
> purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
> run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
> resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.
>
> Can he freely move the SIM card between phones or is there a delay or
> other complication if he does this? My thought was to buy a PAYG phone
> and divert his main number to that but I said I would ask if there is
> a method of linking two phones to the same number?

What about an 07 voip number, that can be on two phones but needs
internet to connect

Dave

On Wednesday, 14 June 2023 at 18:48:53 UTC+1, David Wade wrote:
> On 14/06/2023 12:16, Scott wrote:
> > A friend of mine wants to buy a second mobile phone to use for travel
> > purposes only and asked if I thought he could clone the SIM card and
> > run both phones with the same number. I assume the answer is a
> > resounding no as the base station and the phone need to communicate.
> >
> > Can he freely move the SIM card between phones or is there a delay or
> > other complication if he does this? My thought was to buy a PAYG phone
> > and divert his main number to that but I said I would ask if there is
> > a method of linking two phones to the same number?
> What about an 07 voip number, that can be on two phones but needs
> internet to connect
>
> Dave

Indeed, you could get a purely Voip one or port one in...