Business
Have Nextel cell phone, will travel
Nextel Communications this week expanded its line of cell phones to allow its customers to keep wireless access as well as their same phone number and data while traveling in up to 80 countries. The phones use a SIM (subscriber identity module) card, which is a thumbnail-size silicon chip that contains a phone's "guts," including its telephone number and list of contact information. The card is usually found behind the phone's battery. AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless also sell cell phones that have these chips. The cards can be removed from one phone and put into any other phone. With the transfer, the new phone assumes the embedded telephone number and can retrieve any other information stored on the card's 64K of memory. --Ben Charny, Special to ZDNet News
Nextel Communications this week expanded its line of cell phones to allow its customers to keep wireless access as well as their same phone number and data while traveling in up to 80 countries.
The phones use a SIM (subscriber identity module) card, which is a thumbnail-size silicon chip that contains a phone's "guts," including its telephone number and list of contact information. The card is usually found behind the phone's battery.
AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless also sell cell phones that have these chips.
The cards can be removed from one phone and put into any other phone. With the transfer, the new phone assumes the embedded telephone number and can retrieve any other information stored on the card's 64K of memory. --Ben Charny, Special to ZDNet News