Piranha sim question
 

Hi, sorry in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but I am hoping someone with more experience will have an answer for me.

I have a Canadian Samsung Note II (Telus) that I unlocked using the free popular method that can easily be found online. I actually bought it outright directly from the Samsung store myself. I could not wait the 3 months grace period for Telus to unlock because my parents were leaving prior. I got the phone for them thinking it would be easier for them to send me texts.

Anyway, on the first trip, I gave them an old ekit sim (the one where you have to enter a passcode), and it worked fine.
I later lost that ekit sim.

They recently went on another trip, and I ordered a new ekit sim and a piranha sim. They could not use the new ekit sim at all (this sim asks you North America or Rest of World, instead of a passcode), it would not roam, and the piranha sim keeps giving them "invalid sim". I have since found the old ekit sim, and it still works fine. Sometimes the new ekit sim will work at home, but it is slow to register? I don't trust that the new ekit sim will work reliably abroad with my Note II.

All three sims work on my old unlocked LG P500H though!

I have asked Pirahna support for help, but they think the Note II is not fully unlocked? I have asked Telus, and they say if another sim works, it is fully unlocked. Also, since I have cancelled my monthly plan with Telus, they can't do anything for me anyway?

Is it true that my Note II is not fully unlocked? are there levels of unlocking??

I have also noticed that the Piranha sim chip (the gold part) is bigger than ekit or Telus sims. Maybe the Piranha is just not compatible with the Note II? (The Piranha tech said they have not had problems with the Note II?)

I am interested in the mysims2go, but am worried it won't work either.

I just want a stable sim that will work most of the time. Heck, the new ekit sim didn't even work in the U.S.!

If anyone has some insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hello. My qualifications to answer this question are that I have
a Piranha SIM and more than two ekit SIMs.
I have no knowledge of the phones mentioned.
Why did you need to unlock it? You bought it from a Samsung store and not Telus.
Are you sure it was locked in the first place? Did 'unlocking' it mess something up?
You don't specify which ekit SIMs you have. I suspect that you needed to do 1xxxx or 2xxxx or 3xxxx to choose the location you are in. xxxx=passcode.
This quote below from ekit seems to make clear what needs to be done.
SIMs seem to work. Must be the phone.

Its not Telus' phone. [Unless somehow it is?] Why are you asking them?
Do you have any SIM besides Telus and ekit and Piranha to test if it is unlocked and working? Did the method you use to unlock it involve putting a SIM other than Telus' in it and did it say stick in an unlocking code?
I am not sure if it was locked to begin with. Is there anyone you can ask about if the free popular method has issues with unlocked or locked phones?
If it fits it should not be an issue.
If you choose 'North America' does it still not work?
Tell us[no pun intended] what ekit SIMs you have.

Hi rfranzq, thanks for the reply!

I tried to initially buy this phone from Bestbuy, but they only sell on contract.
So I went to the Samsung store, and they sold it outright, but I was given a choice of Bell or Telus. So I chose Telus. Honestly, I am a simple cheapo prepaid user, and did not do enough research :rolleyes:. I just needed it before they left. My parents are old, and I thought this was much easier for them to use because of the size and especially because of the stylus. Anyway, I was told I could call Telus and request the unlock code from them since the phone is bought outright. Later I find there is a three month grace period I must wait, but they were leaving before that, so I did the easy unlock method.

The unlock I used is supposed to be permanent, involves no rooting, and doesn't void the warranty (because no rooting). It was definitely locked prior to the unlock.

Regarding ekit: I did not even think about them being different!!! I think you figured it out for me!!! I logged into both accounts, the old sim was Passport PLUS, and the new sim is just Passport. There is no Passport Plus on the website anymore, and that's why I chose the Passport, unless it is well hidden on their website? The passport plus sim makes you select geography by entering either passcode xxxx (international) or 2xxxx (North America). The new passport sim doesn't use the passcode.

I can only test at home in Canada, but so far... The old passport plus sim registers fast. The new passport sim is either slower to register or doesn't register at all. The piranha is the one that gives me the invalid sim message.

The piranha works in the LG unlocked phone, and that's actually what they ended up using. The Piranha in the LG was the one that worked (not all the time though).
The new Ekit passport sim in the Note II would not roam at all.
This was a South American cruise around the horn from Brazil to Los Angeles.

I really want the piranha to work in the note, but it just isn't :down:
I think I will try ordering mysims2go and onesimcard to try out, and go through the pain of teaching them how to change out sims. Seriously... it will be difficult...

*edit*
I thought I'd mention, they don't use the phone on the ship. They only use it at the ports, on land where it shouldn't be a problem to connect. They say they also did wait a long time for the roaming, but it just won't work with the note. Surely it shouldn't take more than 10minutes to connect?

Also, if you have recommendations for other travel sims, please let me know! I want to be prepared for the next time they travel.

*edit 2*
When I tried the new Ekit and Piranha sims, I connected the Note to my home wifi, and it did an automatic software update.
I only noticed when a lot of software appeared and the layout changed a bit *sigh*
I read that there are a lot of bugs with android 4.3, maybe this is part of the problem?

*edit 3*
I forgot to mention, when I tested out the new Ekit passport, it really doesn't like me selecting North America for some reason. It works better when selecting Rest of world, but of course I get charged a lot more.

If you log onto your ekit account with the Passport Plus number it will have the instructions under 'My Service'.
'Getting started' shouod at least get your phone turned on. You shall find info for your other ekit SIM should be there also.
Let the troubled ekit SIM try overnight. Do you have the ability to manually choose networks? If you do, if you try overnight have it on 'automatic. Also, I would be cautious about sending any SIM that did not work in Canada with your parents.
Why can't the LG be used in the future? [It Works!]. And the phone should work on the 'Rest of World' setting except in California.

But only in Canada. Send it on the trip. And the phone should work on the 'Rest of World' setting except in California.

Send as many SIMs as possible. Do teach the user how to swap SIMs if necessary.

Hi rfranzq,

I think I will end up buying a new cheap world phone for them as the backup.
I got the Note II because it's bigger and easier for them to send me messages with. Bigger text and the handrecognition with the stylus is so much easier for them, like writing on a notepad.

With the lg, it's too hard for them to send me messages, but at least they can phone when it connects. I even have a hard time typing on it with my big yucky thumbs. The lg is actually my normal phone. I've been using a really old school flip one while they were away. Also, I don't think the lg works in Korea or Japan, which are places they want to go in the future.

I will definitely teach them about the sim card swapping. I tried before, but its really hard teaching some people about things like this...

Please report back after the 'test'.

I tried posting in a canadian forum too, and it may be that I did not unlock properly? In any case, I have done some research, and if I can find a Huawei? Y300 prepaid for cheap, I will try to unlock that and use that as a backup. I think that will work in Asia.

In any case, I have ordered a mysims2go, and a onesimcard.
I was also considering xxsim as it seems popular, but I will see how the other two are first.

When they arrive, I will post whether they worked or not in my weird Note II, and if they work in my LG. Hopefully I can also find another cheap phone to unlock that will/should work in Asia.

Except for Japan any phone that has the 4 basic bands (800,900, 1800, 1900) will work overseas in Asia.

South Korea requires HSPA well.

If it helps, my Piranha sim works in a Moto G dual sim within the USA. The Moto G US and International also have the right HSPA band (2100) for Japan and Korea.

I did have to get a Piranha sim replacement after I sent mine over to China with relatives in an old flip phone... It died somehow with no visible physical damage. The bad sim failed to register in all of my GSM phones.

You could also consider a Nexus 7 3G. No Voice but you can root Nexus 7 3G 4.4+ to work with sms. A used 4.3 o/s Nexus 7 3G should have sms working out of the box.