anti-theft incompatibility with multi-network SIM cards (Project Fi)

[AMDY 1]

My new Nexus phone uses the Google Project Fi wireless service.  It uses a custom company-provided SIM card to allow call switching between two different US wireless carriers, T-Mobile US and Sprint, and also Wifi, and the device will switch between these three options for calls even as they are in progress.   The goal is to provide the best coverage and when possible route calls over wifi to keep costs low.  

 

When the phone changes between these options while on a call or  idle and searching for the best signal, this is being detected as a changed SiM condition and tripping the ESET anti-theft and locking the device. The SIM has not in fact changed but it does have different IDs depending on which network is in use at that moment.  For example I just took a call that began over T-Mobile but since I am in my wifi at home, the phone handed off to the wifi and ESET locked the device the second the call ended.   

 

 

This is the third time in the last day anti-theft has locked the device like this due to conditions that are entirely normal for this particular device and cell company.  Yesterday I was driving around and went from one wireless carrier to the other as they had different signal levels, and the other was standing in line in store where it swapped over to wifi and back to the phone carrier.  Bam, it locks.    

 

It would be nice if ESET could look into the way Project Fi SIM cards work and adapt to it so it doesn't cause these false theft locks.   As it is, I am going to have to turn off anti-theft and wing it and I am not happy about this.  But at least my phone won't be locking itself after every network switch.

[Marcos 5,074]

Unfortunately, support for dual-sim mobile phones is not natively implemented in Android and every vendor uses their own implementation. This prevents us from detecting switching between sim cards properly.