answered
2015-02-01 19:00:00 +0200
Hello, in my opinion dual sim support is necessary for two groups of users:
- The first one want be able to use different provider for voice and data.
- The second group want use one phone for privat and business.
For both groups the phone/tablet must be enabled to support two (or more) sims.
Possible enhancements are
- The phone has two slots (i would prevere)
- A usb sim dongle is supported (also for a third one)
- (for jphone only) There is The Other Half (TOH) that enables an additional sim (the same as above)
On software side the enhancements are different for both groups.
While the first group use both sims privat or for business, there is no reason to protect the content for each other.
For the second group the split is a requirement.
I know many companies which did not allow sharing one phone for privat an business.
There are more reasons why they do so.
- First is, in some countries (e.g. germany) a company which allow the staff using the business phone for privat phone calls, email, ... acts as a phone provider and liable to correspond law. I think therefore the owner of the sim is the crucial factor.
- Second is, the security - most companies are non very happy if confidential information get lost.
For the first item a dual sim support is necessary to split the hardware in a privat and a business part.
Now to the second item (which is more complex). Some apps send information (contacts, emails, ...) to the company the app comes from.
To prevent this, for other Phones there are some mobile iron apps which create ist own crypted container.
Other companies allow to reset a lost phone.
Now sailfisch is able to crypt the home partition (i think the dmcrypt kernel module allow this). So the data of a lost phone (if it is locked) are protected - business and privat one.
The enhancement to split privat and business can be done by creating different users (like all other unix/linux/bsd OSes SailfishOS can do this also).
Now if the different sim slots can be assigned to the different users, the privat apps cannot use business data and the other way.
A WLan or VPN connection to contact the intranet of a company must also save there information, keys, certificates, .. in the business home and privat WLan information should be stored at the privat users home.
Also business related pki information (for access to confidential web sides or emails) must be protected.
May be a connected usb dongle with an additional sim, pki, .. should be assigned at plugin to the user which need the item.
I think there are a lot of enhancements to get this to work. But if it works it is the best choice for one phone for business and privat. And the basic software infrastructure is allready available in SailfishOS - or planned in version 2 (multitasking, multiuser, split screen, data encryption, ...
And for people which will use multiple sims with one user (for voice and data), like the first group, it should be also possible to assigne more sims to one user.
I hope the long text is understandable (i'm no english nativ speaker)
Gabriel
yes, I would have nothing against tripleSIM there is no single operator, that covers my needs, having 3 SIM cards is MUCH cheaper at the cost of inconvenience of carrying 2-3 devices at all times.
ortylp ( 2014-12-20 04:33:24 +0200 )editDo we even know there are any plans for any The Second One?
But as a sudden thought around this: Why is still mobile accounts still a plastic piece with a dumb memory circuit in nearly the year 2015? What a stupid standard! The mobile account should of course be a soft thing. Something you download with a passphrase the first time and after that managed with a certificate. Is this something that 3gpp covers ? What decides that it is like this? Contacts can always be stored and transferred in other ways.
Larswad ( 2014-12-21 10:49:21 +0200 )edit