GSM cellular terminal

• US 6,799,057 B1
• Filed: 01/10/2001
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dual SIM Technologies LLC (Equitable IP Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dante Tognetti, Telit Mobile Terminals S.p.A.
• Inventors: Liverotti, Giorgio
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Pablo N.
• Application Number:
  US09/601,982
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 455/551, 455/575, 455/89, 455/90, 455/33.2, 455/347, 455/348, 455/349, 455/550, 455/557, 455/186.1, 455/558, 455/552, 455/553, 379/354, 379/355, 379/356, 379/357
• US Class Current: 455/558
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3816 Mechanical arrangements for accommodating identification devices, e.g. cards or chips; with connectors for programming identification devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A GSM cellular terminal comprising antenna means, control means, signal processing means, where SIM cards can be associated with the signal processing means for connection to corresponding service networks, said GSM cellular terminal being apt to host several SIM cards simultaneously and switch between them. According to the present invention, corresponding respective signal processing means (BLK3, BLK3′) can be associated with each SIM card.

Claims

1. A GSM cellular terminal comprising antenna means, control means, signal processing means, and a plurality of SIM card readers, where corresponding SIM cards can be inserted for connection to corresponding service networks, wherein said GSM cellular terminal comprises at least two separate signal processing means, said at least two separate signal processing means comprising corresponding SIM card readers, and being adapted to simultaneously maintain connections of their respective SIM cards to said corresponding service network, supervised by said control means.

2. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 1, wherein said signal processing means comprise signal reception and transmission means.

3. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 2, wherein said control means comprise program memory means associated with a management program of the plurality of SIM card readers and of the corresponding signal reception and transmission means.

4. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 3, wherein said SIM cards can be integrated in one sole physical support.

5. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 3, wherein said control means comprise a keyboard unit, which has an additional keyboard segment for the transmission of signals being able to switch among the plurality of SIM cards.

6. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 5, wherein said additional keyboard segment is a specific multifunction send and/or selection key.

7. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 3, further comprising optical and/or acoustic signaling means to indicate which SIM card can be used for transmission-reception by the subscriber.

8. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 7, wherein said optical and/or acoustic signaling means are integrated in standard signaling means included in the GSM cellular terminal.

9. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 3, wherein said program memory comprises one or more of the following functions:

a selection function of the activated channel;

a primary function either to deactivated or put on hold one of the two activated channels, while the other channel is in communication;

a highlighting function of the activated selected channel;

a managing function of the optical and/or acoustic signals related to the activated channels;

a managing function of the access priorities to the index lists related to both SIM cards.

10. A GSM cellular terminal according to claim 3, wherein the signal processing means are separate and able to receive different signal types.