some dual-sim devices have one IMEI number, some have two

[Fritz Wuehler]

The specs on dual-sim phones never clearly state the number of IMEI
numbers assigned. Is there a not-so-obvious way to see this in the
specs before buying a phone? A certain chipset perhaps?

Anyone know which particular models of dual-sim phones have 1 or 2
IMEI numbers?

[tlvp]

Only dual-SIM phone I know anything about -- Sony Xperia tipo dual ST21a2
(Classic Silver) -- uses *one* IMEI (and it's printed on the box, along
with the S/N, where the UPC bar code appears). HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

[Martin Maurer]

Hello Fritz,

From: "Fritz Wuehler"
> The specs on dual-sim phones never clearly state the number of IMEI
> numbers assigned. Is there a not-so-obvious way to see this in the
> specs before buying a phone? A certain chipset perhaps?

may i ask why it is important to have 1 or 2 IMEI numbers?
Is there any advantage of having only 1 or having 2 IMEI numbers?

Best regards,

Martin

[Anonymous]

>Only dual-SIM phone I know anything about -- Sony Xperia tipo dual
>ST21a2 (Classic Silver) -- uses *one* IMEI (and it's printed on the
>box, along with the S/N, where the UPC bar code
>appears).

Thanks, it's useful to know that the box shows that.. will be useful
if I buy off-the-shelf.

It turns out that phones that are "dual-active" must have two IMEI
numbers, because the phone networks cannot handle the same IMEI number
used twice simultaneously.

[tlvp]

The thinking in general is that a single handset, with however many
alternate SIMS in place, has but a single IMEI ... while a handset that's
really *two* telephones bundled together within a single device (each
capable of telephony services independent of the state of the other) will
need *two* IMEIs, one per independent telephone.

That said, such dual-active devices seem rarer than the single-IMEI sort.

More on dual-SIM phones and their IMEI numbers may be found through

: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14517338/android-check-whether-the-phone-is-dual-sim/17499889#17499889

[tlvp]

On Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:57:52 +0800, Anonymous wrote:

>> IMEI ... printed on the

>>box, along with the S/N, where the UPC bar code
>>appears).
>
> Thanks, it's useful to know that the box shows that.

In fact, each of the several cellphones I've bought new over the years --
Sony, Motorola, and Nokia -- has had its IMEI printed on a label on the box
as easily visible as the UPC code to every observer. HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp

[Macker]

LG Optimus L5 Duos E615 with two sims has on the box two IMEI-numbers.

--
Macker

[tlvp]

On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:42:46 -0300, Macker wrote:

> LG Optimus L5 Duos E615 with two sims has on the box two IMEI-numbers.

Can you report whether the keystroke sequence * # 0 6 # displays *both*
IMEI numbers or just one? (And, if "just one", which one? ... and what
keystroke sequence to use to display the other one?)

Many heartfelt thanks in advance! Cheers, -- tlvp

[Macker]

tlvp <mPiOsUcB...@att.net> wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:42:46 -0300, Macker wrote:
>
> > LG Optimus L5 Duos E615 with two sims has on the box two IMEI-numbers.
>
> Can you report whether the keystroke sequence * # 0 6 # displays *both*
> IMEI numbers or just one? (And, if "just one", which one? ... and what
> keystroke sequence to use to display the other one?)
>
> Many heartfelt thanks in advance! Cheers, -- tlvp

You're welcome. The LG shows both IMEI-numbers on the same screen.
--
Macker

[tlvp]

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 23:07:42 -0300, Macker wrote, re * # 0 6 # :

> ... The LG shows both IMEI-numbers on the same screen. ...

Interesting. Thank you for taking the time to check for me. Cheers, -- tlvp

[Anonymous]

>may i ask why it is important to have 1 or 2 IMEI numbers?
>Is there any advantage of having only 1 or having 2 IMEI numbers?

IMEI numbers are kind of like a VIN number to a car. They are
tracked in various ways.

Suppose you buy a sim with cash, and toss it when you're done with it.
You might think that you had some privacy with that, however, you are
uniquely identified by the IMEI number. Activity on your past sim
will be associated with your activity on your next sim. One way that
this can benefit you is if your phone is stolen. The IMEI can then be
traced to the thief.

The IMEI is also being abused in many ways, because Android apps can
harvest that number (via the "read phone state and identity" system
permission), and use it to surruptitiously track your actions and
associate them to you, even if you never create an account in the app.
The IMEI is a primary key that can be used to aggregate any and all
information that is collected.

Google has spyware that grabs users' IMEIs without their knowledge or
consent. If you were to create one google account for personal data,
and another for business data, you might be doing this to create some
separation. But the separation is only in your mind -- google uses
the IMEI to associate the two accounts together.

Whether to have 1 or 2 IMEI numbers depends on your usage and threat
model. If recovery of a stolen device is important to you, you might
favor having one IMEI. If you want the privacy to live a double life
and keep some separation, 2 IMEIs is better. As a practical matter,
having 2 IMEIs also makes it possible to have two simultanous GSM
connections going (often called "dual-active").

[Marius Gavrilescu]

On 2013-08-24, Anonymous <nor...@breaka.net> wrote:
> The IMEI is also being abused in many ways, because Android apps can
> harvest that number (via the "read phone state and identity" system
> permission), and use it to surruptitiously track your actions and
> associate them to you, even if you never create an account in the app.
> The IMEI is a primary key that can be used to aggregate any and all
> information that is collected.

Don't install untrusted apps and there will be no more abuse.
This is also true for the so-called 'Android viruses', which are
really trojan horses.

You can also deny untrusted apps that permission. I hear AOKP lets
users deny permissions to the installed apps, and Cyanogenmod has
the 'Incognito mode' feature which hides your personal data from
untrusted apps. I don't know whether IMEIs are considered personal
data by Cyanogenmod, but it's easy to test.

There are more ways to deny apps access to permissions. I remember
at least one app that does just that to rooted phones (it is called
Permissions Denied IIRC). I have also heard about a more complex project
which was a rather big modification to the android system that let the user
have a finer control of apps' behaviours, but I do not remember its name.

> Google has spyware that grabs users' IMEIs without their knowledge or
> consent. If you were to create one google account for personal data,
> and another for business data, you might be doing this to create some
> separation. But the separation is only in your mind -- google uses
> the IMEI to associate the two accounts together.

You don't need to install anything from Google nor create a Google
account to use an Android phone.
--
Marius Gavrilescu

[Bert]

In news:f0vh19pujbr5sn4rq...@4ax.com The Other Guy
<Knews...@gmail.com> wrote:

> There is no IMEI number in my phone.

Its ESN or MEID is logically equivalent.

--
be...@iphouse.com St. Paul, MN

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 11:36:24 -0700, The Other Guy wrote:

> There is no IMEI number in my phone. ALSO no sim card.

I guess it's not a cellular phone then. Pretty sure even the analogue
cellular phone system had IMEI's...

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:16:58 +0000 (UTC), Marius Gavrilescu wrote:

> You don't need to install anything from Google nor create a Google
> account to use an Android phone.

But can you buy an Android the device that won't "phone home" to
Google the moment you power it up with an active network connection
of any sort?

All "consumer" devices seem to come loaded with bloatware and all
manner of other Google stuff, Play Store, Updates, Sync, etc etc.

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Marius Gavrilescu]

On 2013-08-24, Dave Liquorice <allsortsn...@howhill.com> wrote:
> But can you buy an Android the device that won't "phone home" to
> Google the moment you power it up with an active network connection
> of any sort?

The fix is simple though: don't power them up with the original software.
Install CWM/TWRP and flash your favourite ROM.

fastboot or Samsung's download more are enough for installing CWM
or TWRP, so you won't need to boot into the platform at all.

If you need to boot it normally before doing this, you can just turn it
on without a SIM card. It will not connect automatically to a wireless
network, so it won't be able to phone home until you finish installing
the new recovery.

> All "consumer" devices seem to come loaded with bloatware and all
> manner of other Google stuff, Play Store, Updates, Sync, etc etc.

These are not included in cyanogenmod, AOKP and other similar ROMs.
--
Marius Gavrilescu

[c...@isbd.net]

The Other Guy <Knews...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:08:34 +0800, Anonymous <nor...@breaka.net>
> wrote:
>
> >>may i ask why it is important to have 1 or 2 IMEI numbers?
> >>Is there any advantage of having only 1 or having 2 IMEI numbers?
> >
> >IMEI numbers are kind of like a VIN number to a car. They are
> >tracked in various ways.
>

> There is no IMEI number in my phone. ALSO no sim card.
>

... and as I said a while ago I set my own IMEI number in my phone
(having been given it by the supplier). In Android phones the IMEI
number is in software and has no real fixed relationship to the
hardware.

--
Chris Green
·

[Dave U. Random]

Marius Gavrilescu wrote:

> There are more ways to deny apps access to permissions. I remember
> at least one app that does just that to rooted phones (it is called
> Permissions Denied IIRC). I have also heard about a more complex project
> which was a rather big modification to the android system that let the user
> have a finer control of apps' behaviours, but I do not remember its name.

Is it the Xposed / XPrivacy combination I'm very pleased with?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1574401
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2320783

> You don't need to install anything from Google nor create a Google
> account to use an Android phone.

ACK, no Gapps at all. We'd only need a Google Play Store proxy to get
the free programs not published on F-Droid or anywhere else. ;)

[nasma...@gmail.com]

I have a dual sim s7, sm-g930fd, but it was formatted to Canadian sm-930w8 which is showing only a single sim. How can I go about it please?

[Carlos E.R.]

On 18/02/2019 21.22, nasma...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have a dual sim s7, sm-g930fd, but it was formatted to Canadian sm-930w8 which is showing only a single sim. How can I go about it please?
>

Didn't you notice that you have posted in a thread from 2013?

We don't have access to it, we don't have the context.
Please post a NEW thread with full details.

--
Cheers, Carlos.