Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

Hi All-

I was thinking about picking up a used n810, but started to wonder about the n900 instead.

Can it be used without a phone service plan, basically in the same manner an n810 would be?

Other than phone-related features, would anything not work?

Re: Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

Yes. I used my N900 without a SIM in it for several weeks.

The "update time automatically" feature relies upon cellular service. You could install a utility to update the time via the Internet instead though, if it's important to you.

Also, for the pre-production firmware at least, there's a bug that causes the N900 to use more battery power than it should when no SIM is installed. That may be fixed in the production firmware; I haven't heard one way or the other.

Re: Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

Yes I would think so. I've used both my Blackberry Bold and Nokia N82 without SIM cards for the first few days and had no problems surfing over wifi etc. I would think the N900 would be the same.

For those interested in other phones, I can never get any of my Sony Ericsson phones to work - even in offline/flight mode - without a SIM card... very annoying ! Especially if you are taking a phone overseas just for WiFi use.

Re: Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

If it just needs the presence of a SIM as opposed to it actually doing anything I wonder if popping a PAYG SIM with no credit in would be a useful workaround.

Re: Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

This may well work, and it would be a cheap fix, as PAYG SIMs go for about three or four dollars shipped on eBay. I simply wasn't sure enough of this possible solution to mention it.

I can say that I did have an iDEN SIM in my N900 for a bit, just so I could explore the phone settings in the control panel. Nothing exploded, and it might have been enough to avoid the extra power drain. I haven't been willing to give up playing with my N900 long enough to test.

Re: Can the n900 be used without a service plan?
 

How easy is it to turn on and off cellular data service if you have a SIM in there? Is there an actual on-off switch somewhere in the software, or is it more of a workaround like in Windows Mobile?