iPhone. News and Tips

At the current moment an iPhone 3G can work in Russian mobile networks
only if one of the following criteria is applicable:
1. The iPhone was delivered from Europe, where it was officially unlocked.
2. iPhone is being used together with TurboSIM (also known as proxy-SIM).
The question of proxy-sim stability is as actual in Russia as it never
was. Unfortunatly, the common iPhone user got no time not only to test
and analize proxy-sim, but also to search the infinite forum threads for that small piece of information needed to choose the right proxy. So our portal decided to compare two proxy (Yessim and Tornado) and give a resume on them.

SIMcard programmator

The main problem of proxy-sim is loosing the network connect or registration failure after you travel in a subway or elevator. This defect was repaired in the last Yessim and Tornado firmware.

Alfa88 from iphones.ru prefers to use Yessim from the moment iPhone 2.0.2 firmware was released (that means about twoo weeks). There are some difficulties in patch count configuration – the right and stable config was found after a number of experiments committed.

So, here are the results. During two weeks of usage in MTS (MobileTeleSystems) mobile network his iPhone didn’t broke a connection with EDGE, even after having a subway run it successfully reconnected. The most Megafon and Beeline clients are also doesn’t experience any problems using Yessim. There were registered a few troubles with EDGE, where the connection to high speed Internet was repaired after simple phone restart.

And what about Tornado? Alfa88’s experience of using it lasted for 4 days. The results of tests were similar with the common opinion – the network connection troubles were also repaired, there were only EDGE-incompatibility unresolved. And Tornado doesn’t support 6-pin Megafon sim-cards, they should be exchanged to new versions in operator’s offices.

The Tornado’s firmware should be upgraded to the 0216 version, with the right Fake IMSI parameter. iSmartfone cards are not programmed, and don’t work stable in Moscow. But in small town like Ryazan the results are more optimistic. This is because of the strict mobile operator policy in large cities.

Tornado and Yessime use the same chip F300 and a similar algorithm. The difference is only in a way to configurate them and in dimensions – the Tornado chip is slightly more thick, but the whole module is thinner.

So if you enjoy having an iPhone, delivered from USA, but can’t make a call – use a proxy-sim to start communicating.