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To: Michael Allard who wrote (103713)	9/4/2001 2:47:03 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Michael Allard -- re : cheating with GSM numbers -- WHERE did you hear this ? Can it be easily documented ? Jon.

To: Michael Allard who wrote (103713)	9/4/2001 7:10:58 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Michael, << However, if you are a GSM subscriber, and pre-pay, each time you pre-pay (usually once or twice a year) even though your phone number stays the same, you are counted as an additional subscriber. That's right - One phone number, prepaying using new SIM cards but retaining one phone number can be 10 or 20 of GSM's total subscriber base! >> I don't wish to be disrespectful but I think you are VERY, VERY misinformed. There happen to be a lot of idiosyncrasies of accounting for prepaid subs from carrier to carrier even within the same region or country. To start with, most typically prepay replenishment (now) is considerably more frequent than 6 months to one year. Most typical method of accounting for a prepaid is to scrub an account after 90 days or 6 months of inactivity and reactivate (count as sub again) when he replenishes. Some carriers used to let them run forever, but that is pretty easy to spot because APRU dives quickly. one2one in UK for instance still lets a prepay run for a year. Adding a sub with every prepay replenishment would be highly unusual, and in fact I actually have never heard of it. A carrier would have to have a very rudimentary system to do that. Perhaps this happens in the CDMA world in the USA where a worldwide mobile numbering system was never considered (raising several issues roaming wise) but not in GSM. << One phone number, prepaying using new SIM cards but retaining one phone number can be 10 or 20 of GSM's total subscriber base! >> Are you confusing SIM cards with prepaid phone cards? The functionality can be combined. It is rare. Are you confusing dual subscription SIM cards (also rare) where a single mobile number can be billed to a personal account or business account? I would suggest you brush up on SIMs, IMEIs, IMSIs, TMSIs, et al ... One mobile number with several SIM cards ... ? Did someone teach you that in Durham? <g> Please don't mislead this astute audience. Thank you. - Eric -