E38 Car Phone - normal SIM or do they need a special one?

[judas]

Just bought a '97 735 and it came complete with a telephone from the dark ages I have a spare SIM card that I tried in it but kept getting a 'check card' message. Not sure if the card's knackered or whether it needs a special one (no doubt at some inflated price from BMW).

Anyone know if I should just be able to stick any old SIM card in before I go and buy a new one, or whether it's restricted to certain networks or not?

Ta!

The phone can be seen in this pic:

[Umar B]

Hi there,

the general comments about what sim to use is that only an O2 or Vodafone SIM will work.

there are 2 places where the SIM will go, either under the phone (i found that an old O2 SIM will work in this location) or in the slot next to the CD changer in the boot. its quite hard to see but use a torch and look for a thin and wide black box.

similer question was asked a while back here but check my posts for the links to other sites E38 owners find usefull

Any other questions, let me know

Umar

[judas]

Thanks for that. It was an O2 SIM that I was trying in the slot under the phone, but it's a fairly new one, less than a year old. I'll have a look in the boot to see if there's a slot there too. Unfortunately all the really old SIMs I have are for Orange only

[Umar B]

judas said:

Thanks for that. It was an O2 SIM that I was trying in the slot under the phone, but it's a fairly new one, less than a year old. I'll have a look in the boot to see if there's a slot there too. Unfortunately all the really old SIMs I have are for Orange only

its the same with me, i've got old orange ones as well, so got some free O2 SIMs, tried it under the phone and nothing, tried it in the boot and it all lit up!

my bother has an old old PAYG O2 SIM and he tried it under the phone and it worked!

sound quality is pretty good through the speakers

[judas]

Ok - found the other SIM slot hidden away next to the CD changer and stuck the SIM card in and BINGO! We have a working car phone!

Thanks, Umar - would never have found that otherwise

[pekman]

Hi everyone,

I've also got an old brick phone. I managed to get the SIM card into the slot near the CD changer and the phone works. However, I am not able to store any numbers in the address book. I also can't seem to get many functions of the phone to work properly, such as last number dialled.

I just realised that the Manual that I have is slightly different from the actual phone. The phone in the Manual has a book icon button but the actual phone has "MR" and "M+" buttons but no book icon button.

Due to this difference I'm not sure if my phonebook is not working correctly because my SIM card is too new (one generation back from 3G), or something else. Also, I can't seem to track down a Manual for my actual phone model. Not sure why I got a slightly different Manual.

Any ideas?