Jonathan Steel's Blog: Simple things are hardest

Why can't I get a hands-free set-up for my mobile?

The solution to the poor quality and irritation of wearing a Bluetooth 'headset' over one ear in the car is supposed to be having multiple SIMs.

Stick an additional suitably registered SIM in the integrated phone system in your Toyota Prius (or whatever), switch off the mobile and hey presto! - a fully hands-free set-up. Good quality, not breaking any laws. Marvellous.

Except that I spoke to my friends at Vodafone today to purchase such a solution and was told that doing so would disallow my Sony-Ericsson p910i from doing anything interesting all the time.

I would lose my ability to do email (vital), surf the net (not much of a loss) or send picture and video messages (pointless anyway). Why? Don't know.

Why can they do something complicated but useless like video messaging but can't do something simple like diverting a phone signal without turning off all the useful functions in my main phone? Hopeless.