How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

inspired by Quim's message in this bug, and then when writing this, I saw this thread, I thought I would ask the question.

If the community has a differnt opinion from the Nokia Maemo team, then they need to learn that their assumption was wrong as soon as possible so they can take care of it in things like Test Suites and development practices.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

Well, first I'll be using it without a SIM from I receive it (today, I think) until the SIM is activated, the 16th.

And then I will use it without cellular data whenever I am out of my country, since data roaming is horrendously expensive. Which means that basically every time I need GPS, I will be offline.

Finally, whenever I get my next phone, I assume I will still be holding on to the N900, like I will be holding on to the N810 now. So, in the future, no more SIM.

So, most of the time I'll be with a SIM/cellular data but not in three phases:
- when I first get the device and play with it to figure out if GPS is usable,
- when I need GPS,
- when I've retired it as a phone and GPS is one of the main features that is still interesting to have.

I believe "worksforme" is not good enough for the bug you pointed to.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I voted for "always", but I need to explain this...

I find it extremely frustrating to use the N900 as a phone, so I end up taking my old phone with me all the time. The N900 is the same kind of "secondary device" that the N810, N800 and 770 were. - The way it is now, I have to pay €7,- a month for a second SIM card for this. If only the Finns had provided a clean way to tether the N900 with a phone the same way I could with all Maemo devices before, I'd never have a SIM in it.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I'm not voting yet. I'm still running without SIM. I haven't decided which one I'm going to install eventually. This will depend on tethering solutions, email solutions and stuff. I.e. I can't use the mail program in the N900 due to its missing support for downloading headers only, so I must use the N800 still. There's no gmail-notify either, as far as I can tell, so there goes another one..

So, for now I'll be using it without SIM. Except that I will do a quick test, due to this being a DDP device (1 week return policy).

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I have a similar use case to Volt.

I travel a fair amount aborad and the international data roaming charges are horrific (even within Europe if you have a UK operator).

The other reason is that I like hill walking. Even when there is coverage I often don't want the cell stack active so I can get some piece and quiet so I just want a nice GPS unit (why would I have to pay out for a Garmin as well!).

When it comes down to it GPS is there as a piece of hardware. The unit should be able to function without cell assit - what happens if the towers go out for instance?

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I voted "only when roaming", but even then I will have SIM installed for phone calls and SMS. Only cellular data traffic is disabled on my phone when roaming due to costs.

When I got my N900, first things to do were:
- Put protective coating on display
- Insert SIM card
- Insert memory card (I have only 16 GB)
- Insert battery
- Load the beast full

I switched it on after the battery was full.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

What about the following usecase:
Running the N900 always/most of the time with a SIM inserted, but using the SIM only for phone calls, not for data connections.

E.g. where I live mobile phone calls are not too expensive (well still about 10 times more expensive than landline calls), but mobile data connections are very expensive.

I guess the same applies to many other countries, too.

So I think the use case "SIM for phone calls, WLAN for data" is quite common.

Just because in Finland mobile data connections are dirt cheap, that doesn't mean, that this applies to the rest of the planet, too. :)

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

This is not a question of SIM only. Here is a partial quote of an SMS I recieved when using my T-mobile Austria SIM in the Czech Republic:

"Innerhalb der EU ... 20 Ct/100kB"

So when roaming between EU countries, DATA cost a mere 2 Euro per megabyte.

We non-EU members are not so lucky to have such cheap prices. According to my provider's (Orange-IL) tarrif list, data usage in the Czech Republic costs 12 Euro per megabyte.

In short, making N900 a "must have data connection" device, is practically the same as making it a one country device.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

If there is one thing I believe Nokia understands better than any other cell phone manufacturer, it is "the rest of the planet".

Edit: may not apply to the Maemo team, of course.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I voted "always" as I plan to use wifi extensively.

My plan is to use this on a pay as you go plan to reduce my costs. My thinking is to use SIP calls while wifi is available (work, home) which should reduce my call minutes used substantially. Additionally, most data transfer will be done over wifi.

In the US pay as you go data is ridiculously expensive, so I'd prefer to avoid using it whenever possible.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I'm with Iskarion on that: I won't use the SIM for data, but only for phone calls, all data will go through WiFi. 3G (or any other data plan) is way overpriced here, so it's a no go, at least for the moment.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I think that is a common motivation. I think it kind of defeats the intended purpose with this poll, though. The poll is in response to a bug with the GPS where it doesn't work without net. Since you won't be using GPS while at home or at work, you might need to use that ridiculously expensive pay as you go data to get a (quick, or at all) GPS lock.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I bought this as an upgrade to my N800. I will use the GPS and I expect that the GPS does not require a network connection to get a fix and operate.

Neither my wife's TomTom or my bluetooth GPS require a network connection and get cold fixes in less than a minute in most cases (never exceeding 2-3 minutes). I was hoping that I would be able to reduce the amount of items/cords/chargers/batteries that I carry.

I expect that if I get lost somewhere, and want to fire up the GPS to see where I'm at and how to get somewhere that it won't cost me $5 to get a fix (every time I need to do that). Or worse, some of the bug comments seem to suggest a connection is required to maintain a fix. On a longer trip, that could become prohibitively expensive.

It's very annoying that something that should be a hardware feature is limited by the software and will cost me $, either every time I want to use it, or a monthly fee. It's ridiculous that I'll have to fall back to older/additional technology to avoid paying excessive fees to use a hardware feature (that should be perfectly capable without the fees) in an "unlocked" phone/computer/tablet/whatever.

So, I will be using it without data, for the GPS, until such time as the bug is fixed.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I'll never use my N900 without a sim card. I'm on the road a lot and need a data connection everywhere I go. Even at home I never use wifi.

And I use it extensively as a phone - usually about 15-20 calls a day, or around 2000 minutes a month. I find it very easy to use the phone functions.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

Huh.. I don't understand the choices.

I will always have a SIM card inside my phone although I will turn off data roaming services when I'm abroad. That's the same as how I've used all of my other 'smartphones' all this time.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

At least until the EU government bring the announced measures into force to force connection roaming without horrific charges.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I went to the post office, and fetched the thingie. I'm using it without a SIM right now :B

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

Well, I intended the poll to gather current community opinion, to check if it was the same as Quim's stated assumption that there would be a SIM card WITH a data connection in it always, appart from when roaming(the bug seems to be more with Maps than GPS as I read the current situation).

My bad, I guess I have attempted to combine two thoughts here "How often would you plan to use the N900 without a SIM?" and "How does roaming data cost affect you?"

For me, I could see the situation when I roam, that my SIM goes into a "dumb" phone and the N900 goes back to being a Tablet.

The most interesting data point so far (at least for me) is that a very high proportion of people would turn off data (i.e relay on WiFi when roaming), and that there is statistically significant number who are expecting to use it in a WiFi Tablet mode (opposite to Nokia expectations?)

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I keep the SIM in mine most of the time, but my roommate is currently SIM-less.

On that note, has anyone managed to get bluetooth DUN working on the n900 as a client i.e. getting connection from another phone?

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

I want to keep a SIM in all the time. I do not want to be doing a lot of shutting down, removing battery, etc. But most of the time I wand wifi on and GSM voice and data off.

Sometimes I will want GSM and/or data on. I know I am in a tiny minority, but my reasons are valid and simply providing a tick box for each radio in addtion to "standard" profiles would cover all use cases and presents no real burden to Nokia since it should have beeen done that way to begin with and has been on many other devices for years.

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

another person stating that they will use N900 as a tablet http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...9&postcount=18

Re: How often do you want/expect to use N9xx *WITHOUT* a SIM?
 

wonder if anyone else will vote on this :)