I'm not convinced that customers using more minutes wouldn't cost the providers more than any marginal revenue - after all, within my "plan", marginal minutes cost me nothing extra, and going over is so expensive that it is to be strongly avoided.

Then there is the problem that all my old cell phones are also old technology and not compatible with my current service, including a couple of analog-only phones.

but what happens if you answer both cell phones at the same time? think of all the overhead in processing that the cell carriers wil have to do in order to provide a service that's marginally useful. also, the more cell phones you have, the more likely you are to lose one. do you really need 3 cellphones when the size of the phone you have now can easily fit in your shirt-pocket?

I would doubt that the additional revenue would pay for the additional costs. One opportunity cost that this would raise is a security concern, at least for analog phones: two appearances of the "same" phone indicated fraud.

Development costs could be significant as carriers try to deal with "partial roaming" calls: two phones could simultaneously ring in, say, Dallas and Sydney. Ringback is supposed to be provided by the far-end (i.e. "the" ringing phone), with the voice channel set up prior to answering: choosing which target phone is the primary, and managing timing issues among the various targets would raise plenty of development problems.

If all you want is the "ring multiple phones" service as you already have it, then, well, don't you already have it?

Again, if all you want is the "ring multiple phones" service as you already have it, then, well, you already have it.

But that's not the same as the service you describe, giving the other phone a "number" under specific calling restrictions. As I described, that's where the technical problems start, and they are not as short as you seem to believe. It's doable, but not trivial (and therefore expensive to implement, for arguably marginal return). You can choose to not believe it, but that doesn't make it easier.

Do you know which service providers allow you to ring multiple phones? I would love to be able to call either of my cellphones just using one number. I don't know if it is possible with Sprint, my provider.

Thansk!

I was just searching the web (google: can you have two cell phones on the same line) and stumbled across your thread... Finally, someone who thinks like me. I wish they would offer this service because, yes, it would be great to be able to have an "emergency backup" phone in the car at the office, just in case I left mine at home. It happened to me today. I hadn't thought all of the problems through, but your suggestions are great (specifically the phone registration thing). Someday, maybe it'll happen... that would be SO helpful. :)

I do a lot of water-oriented sports such as kayaking and fishing. I use a Palm Treo 700p for business, but am disinclined to carry it with me in a kayak because damaging it is a very expensive proposition. Being able to use my existing number on a cheaper phone would be very useful.

This would certainly be helpful to many folks, however I believe it would make their abuse- and fraud-detection methods more difficult.
There are currently big ops which filter through masses of detailed data from signal strength, which can be (and presumably is) sifted
to find patters for abuse. For example, what appears to be the same phone suddenly appearing on the network, at a reasonable geographical
distance from the "active" phone/device. It seems that those operations would have to vectorize as it were and further invade the privacy
of consumers to maintain their attempts to protect their business.

The tools (hard & soft) to basically "clone" a phone, would be handy for plenty of Fair Use situations,
although I guess stopping by the kiosk isn't a big deal.... story: I just had a friend whose phone broke in half, and
although she could still read her phonebook off it, she needed a replacement... I wanted to offer her either
of two older models I have here, but, difficulties ensue, as you might know about the abundance of incompatibilities in SIM cards and so forth.

These problems are in fact an SEP (not my problem), and I'll hope along with other readers that good market competition along with DIY culture
and open source innovations will spur enough positive changes for all users, that we'll be enjoying a really enabled tomorrow with appropriate
technology trumping bad implementation. I enjoyed reading your article, 'Replacing the FCC with "don't be spectrum selfish"', and appreciate
the directives therein, however it is nearly impossible to explain invisible things to people :) I suppose the more reasons there are to care,
the more attentive and imaginitive the public's reception of and response to RF issues will be.

tnx,

ben

The other comments on this subject all seem to be written by those folks that ALSO have a wired land line. I just got ordered a new cell phone and account with Alltel. My goal is to completely rid myself of all things Sprint, including my land lines. I thought I could just use a cell phone alone but eventually, it dawned on me that depending upon just one phone was folly. I want at least 2. This does not mean I'll use them both at once, but at least I'd have a spare in the event that my main cell phone dies. THAT would make me feel a whole lot more secure. I just got off the phone with Alltel and was told that I could not do this but they'd be happy to sell me another "line" for a mere $20/month and I could pay retail for another phone just like the one I ordered. By my math, that's $240/year plus the phone - a quarter of a thousand dollars + and I do not WANT another line - JUST another physical phone device.

Why must I be forced into this corner? You know it's a scam and that the cell people are making large money by doing this or perhaps more accurately, they fear they'll not make as much should they implement a policy allowing a second phone. Perhaps they are right - just think of the nasty things they COULD do, like keep track of which phone you are making your calls from and charging one a premium for using that spare phone - kind of like roaming charges. In fact they could even charge actual roaming until the customer gets around to calling in and explaining why they are on the "other" phone or some such plan. I am sure they could cook up something. Surely using 2 identical units might be a restriction? I can see why you can't use an older phone or dissimilar model.

By instituting this stupid rule, they prevent at least me from going completely wireless (cell) so I'll keep shipping Sprint money each month (grrrr) instead of handing it to the cell carrier (NOT Sprint - no way). In my case, they'd make money. I can't speak for others but I want the peace of mind of a backup device just in case. You DO back up your important data on your computer - don't you??

DoctorSmith

I think Tracfone has the same deal that you describe at T-mobile.

Also, any network using GSM/SIM cards would let you own two, or more, phones and swap out your SIM card as needed.

The trick is to avoid losing the SIM card, of course.

yea....if you have verizon, and log into my account (which is free) you can do an ESN swap when ever you want online...so you keep an old ohone at the office or car....if you forget your phone at home simply log in, type in the ESN number located on the back of the phone under the battery and reset the phone...viola! the old phone now rings your number! when you get home that night just switch it back! all free!

any questions...go to verizons website lol

Ok....so I have this older phone that doesn't have a slot for a SIM card but i really like its a tough phone but i was forced to switch to SIM cards and the phone has just been sitting around. Is there any possible way that i could use the old phone and my new phone that has the sim card and have them both be on the same phone number? Is that even possible? I mean the one phone is that old that it doesn't have a sim card slot...and if i could have both would my sim card be hurt in any way?

grandcentral.com by google will be offering this "switch boarding" service soon. So you could just do a family plan and add an additional phone and have grandcentral forward all calls to your 2nd phone at the same time it rings on your main line.

I have a couple of cool landline phones at home. One is a "portable" and the other has speakerphone capability and both have all kinds of programming features. So, I don't just want to have multiple ringing cell phones, I want land-line type phones that operate from cell signals. It's the form factor of the "home" phone that I like. The only reason cell phones are so small is that you carry them around. One that wasn't carried around would not need to be so tiny. I would get rid of AT&T in a heartbeat if, for the combined price of AT&T and Verizon I could just have cell service--but with home units that had landline phone size and features. I want it all, dammit!

I bought a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go phone in August. I recently lost it for around 3 days, and in the interim, thought it was gone for good. So I bought a slightly better phone with the same company. It would be nice to have two with all of the same information stored on them, in case one is temporarily misplaced, stolen or destroyed.

I know this is a dead thread, but I stumbled across it and I think it would be great to have an "extra" phone to use if my fancy scamchy smart-phone dies, runs out of battery, or gets run over by a rampaging donkey.

I personally would find the two phone/one number thing very useful! Right now I am interested in purchasing the new droid phone, however, I recently found out that the droid does not allow tethering. I use my current phone to tether a lot since I travel for a living. If I had two phones to my same number, I could use my old phone to tether and my new phone for everything else

I have a DockNTalk, which is a device that allows you to dock your cell phone usually by bluetooth connection so that you can make and receive calls from multiple land phones connected into your cell phone instead of into the land phone company jack. If you have wall phone jacks that aren't connected to the phone company you can then connect the dockntalk into a jack and have I believe up to 5 wall phones ringing at the same time when someone calls your cell phone and 5 people can be talking to each other on those phones at the same time just like a landline (which wouldn't happen if you had more than 1 cell phone with the same number, unless I'm wrong about that.)

Now there are other docking stations you can dock your cell phone too. Some dock multiple cell phones, the dockntalk I own doesn't. Just google "dock cell phone" and see what device would work for you. They are kind of expensive. The dockntalk requires a bluetooth adapter for bluetooth phones which is also kind of expensive (mostly all cell phones now only connect to it via bluetooth) and another expense with dockntalk is everytime they have a firmware update to support newer cell phones -- which isn't that frequent, you have to send it back to phonelabs and pay them to do this. Although, this pales in comparison to the expenses you would incur if you had multiple cell phones with the same number -- each with their own monthly fee attached.

Really make sure your cell phone can dock because my old moto krazer couldn't with the dockntalk -- it would drop the voice so the other person couldn't hear you, my older moto worked fine but that didn't allow for caller ID; my samsung and my blackberry curve work fine with caller ID.

I used to use a cellsocket that basically did the same thing and you'll see that when you google, but this is pretty old tech and all new phones won't work on that.

I know this doesn't completely resolve the issue since this requires a power outlet to function (you may find one that doesn't) and you're not using multiple cell phones to talk on (just multiple connections using one cell phone), but you could take your docking station with you along with a few cordless phones and then have "more than one phone on the same [mobile] number."

I was in Europe in 2008 and their carriers have "Twin" sim cards. One in your phone and the other in your car. If you forget your mobile at home and someone calls your ONE phone number it still rings in your car. The technology/method exists. Question is where is it in the great USA? Anyone know?

See description at this site.
http://www.t-mobile.sk/en/!pages.get?id=3204

I think moreso than having a second phone for emergencies in ur car or office would be for people like myself that work in maintenance and need my phone to check emails for repairs, log onto my jobs network to edit and close open requests.. I work in dust, water, gas, oil etc.. I have a blackberry right now and its only 4 months old and is basically ruined, barely works right.. It would be convenient for me to have say a windows based device that I can use for work and then my blackberry or an htc evo @ home for personal use.. I'm trying to have my company get me a paid work phone, then yeah I can probably do call forwarding.. I'd rather have one phone# for everything... Couldn't they just make it so that if both phones are on they both simply just don't work.. Basically when I get home from work I would shut my work phone off in order for my personal phone to be active and vice versa!? That would be amazingg!

hey i just got a new phone because my old samsung vice screen broke, but the funny thing is, whenever my new phone gets a text, the old vice will also ring. two phones, one number.

Everything mentioned above to try to explain why the cell phone companies do not allow more than one phone per number is ridiculous. Software can take care of all the arguments.

But what is missed is the real reason to allow more than one. If you give up your home land-line so as to use your cell phone 100%, you must carry it constantly and everywhere in your house. And the wife does not have any access unless she has her own separate cell phone. Carry it to the garage, to bed, to the shower. If you leave it on the charger in one room you cannot answer it anywhere else.

Remember 20-30 years ago when the land-line companies pretty much did the same ? Only they could install an extension and the phone could only be bought from them. Now it is the cell phone companies doing nearly the same. They control everything about the cells.

Hopefully some day their ignorant rules and regulations will go the same way as Ma Bell.

I totally agree you have it layer out functionally but is have to careful of the federal law. What I would want is to take my old basic reliable phone when my current phone isnt good or on a trip and such. To switch them quickly

Just get CDMA workshop and clone it yourself, fluck the cell phone company.

Not having this capability is the main reason I don't get rid of my land line for real and get a nicer cell phone. landlines can be in different rooms at once and if one handset dies/runs out of batteries you have the other one. It would be soooo handy if a cell phone had the same type of functionality. Paying for the second handset in full and paying 10 dollars extra a month or whatever to be allowed to use the second handset would be fine... I would be willing to pay a fair bit to be able to finally junk my land line without losing its many conveniences. gettinga second line so that I have to give everyone a new phone number is both expensive and inconvenient and comes with a lot of things I just don't want.

The reality is that the election is right around the corner and many votes wont even happen. Get out and vote.