Can I stick my Softbank phone's simcard into a laptop's 3g modem to use internet on my existant dataplan? Are 3g sim cards locked? Would my provider notice?

Asked by gaylard (6

) June 13th, 2009

I have a Japanese Softbank 816sh cell phone with an ‘unlimited’ data plan. The catch is that i have to use their crappy phone browser that can’t really render any websites correctly. They have a super expensive tethering application, but I’d rather just stick my sim card into a netbook with a 3g slot. Are sim cards locked to work only on a certain brand of hardware? Would softbank notice that i’m using internet on a device besides my phone?

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2 Answers

As long as you have the right software on your computer and the modem works you will have no problem. Your phone company will haven’t the faintest clue (they probably wouldn’t even care if the could know). Another option would be to “Tether” which is essentially using your cellphones internet connection on your computer, Al tho you would need to find specific software for your phone..

asow92 (17

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Would the phone company really have no way of telling if you stuck the sim card directly into a computer? There’s nothing in the phone itself that acts as an identifying agent? Has anyone ever actually tried this I wonder?

genericdave (2

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