Car phones.

[Lorns]

Got one of those really old fashioned phones in my car. It's all hooked up but has no sim card. The handset is like a home landline phone. It's motorola and their is aa box in the boot where the sim card goes.
I know its really tacky but i would love to be able to use it. I asked some geezer who owns the local Renault garage and he said it's a 1980's handset and you won't get a sim card for it now. A bit odd that as the car was made in 1995.

So before i go to Barratts Jaguar i thought i'd come to metro. You lot know more about these things and you're cheaper.

[Jamez]

I would never buy a 13 year old car - regardless of the marque.

[Sput]

Jamez: I've noticed since you came back you've defined yourself almost exclusively by what you:
- think is shit when someone asks for help (it's always what they HAVE)
- would never do
- are not

As a result we have little idea what it is you're like, just what you claim you're not like. It's all awfully negative!

[Lorns]

I would never buy a 13 year old car - regardless of the marque.

Why not?
I don't see the sense in buying a brand new car which loses approx £1,000 off its value the minute you drive it off the forecourt. It doesn't make financial sense to me to invest thousands in a product that depreciates in value so quickly and is unlikely to stand the test of time.

Back to the phone.

[Sput]

Have you tried googling the model number to see what kind of sim it wants?

[Stuart*]

Lorns, I suspect that your retro car phone wouldn't be able to work on any network these days even in the event that you could find a SIM card for it.

Mobiles have changed alot in the last 13 years. The networks used to be analogue, but are now all digital. It could be a model that was capable of picking up a digital network though.

[Lorns]

Not yet as i don't haven't got the model number to hand. I have tthe userguide handbook but it doesn't seem to mention the model of the phone. And my old banger is on an outing with 'im indoors @ the mo! I do know its a digital GSM fixed car telephone.

[Gavin Scott]

I do know its a digital GSM fixed car telephone.

Then it should work with a regular sim. I don't recall there being different sizes. Go onto Orange's website. They post them out free for PAYG. If they don't fit it wont cost you anything.

It sounds fab. Take a picture.

[Sput]

Don't you remember when SIMs were credit-card sized? I'm guessing they still come in credit-card sized holders that you have to pop them out of anyway...

[Nick Harvey]

A SIM card is a SIM card is a SIM card.

It comes as a credit card sized item initially, and you push out the inset bit round the chip for almost every phone nowadays.

You will almost certainly need to put the whole, credit card sized thing into the controller box in the boot for a model that old.

EDIT:- Ah, great minds thinking at the same moment, Mr Sput!

[cwathen]

It comes as a credit card sized item initially, and you push out the inset bit round the chip for almost every phone nowadays.

Now my first phone, back in 1999, not only took the full credit-card sized sim, but there was no push out option - the sim card was actually a full size solid item! That of course didn't stop me taking a pair of scissors to it to make it fit my Nokia 3310 - and the same cut down sim card ended up surviving until September 2005.

Anyway, your car phone Lorna. If it's definately a digital phone requiring a sim card then it definately can still work. However, a phone that old will probably be a single band 900Mhz piece of kit. What this means in non geek-speak is that only a Vodafone or O2 sim will work in it. Sims from Orange and T-Mobile (along with all the T-Mobile derived networks like Virgin and Tesco Mobile) require a handset capable of 1800Mhz operation, which your mid-90's piece of kit almost certainly isn't.