Take two

Dual-mode phones are making an appearance, but are they really that useful?

Back in the early days of mobile phones, every time a flight landed, there would be a number of people, usually in the Executive Class, who would whip out their mobile phones and struggle to change the SIM cards. Roaming, as we know it, did not exist. And while that situation has improved dramatically over the past few years, there is a new problem: that of multiple mobile phones.

Think about it; chances are that you might have two mobile phones and because of the schemes offered by CDMA operators like Tata Indicom and Reliance Communications, you might have a CDMA number. But this means having two different handsets, and that is quite a pain. But now, Samsung and Spice are offering handsets—the Samsung Duo and the Spice D88—that allow you to have two numbers on the same phone.

The Duo is unique in the sense that it can support two connections of any type, you can have two GSM connections or two CDMA connections or one of each. But unlike the Spice handset, it is a non-simultaneous device, which means that at any given point in time, you can only use one connection. The Duo, however, is a very smart looking device and has a large 2.2-inch touch-screen display and handwriting recognition technology. Changing between active connections is not instantaneous, and does take a short while (15-20 seconds), but this phone is very useful for a travelling executive who can have two local numbers for Mumbai and Delhi instead of using roaming. The Duo is available through Tata Indicom for Rs 11,990. Note that this device is currently locked to Tata Indicom only.

The Spice D88 is quite different; it can operate on both CDMA and GSM at the same time and even though GSM is the default mode (you can change this), you can make a call through your CDMA line by using the “CDMA Dial” option when you are about to call a number.

The question that most people will want to ask here is: what happens when you get a call from a different network while you are already on a call? Well, think of it like call-waiting; you get the alert, but you cannot keep both calls active by putting one on hold. You will need to disconnect from one system to access calls on the other. And you cannot have multiple connections from the same system like the Duo, but Spice does have a multiple GSM SIM card handset, the D80, as well.

The D88’s looks are also not as classy as that of the Duo; the keypad, for example, looks suspiciously like a last-generation Motorola device. But at Rs 9,850 it is a great deal. Personally, though, this writer will stick to two handsets unless someone from Northern Europe comes out with a dual-mode handset.