@rossputin wrote:
I don't think it's dual SIM. How would that be beneficial?
In a nutshell: flexibility. Honestly most people probably don't *need* Dual SIM (and if you did, you'd already know it).
Here are a three common use cases, two of which works well with PM and one which does work but with a major limit:
1) Having multiple phone numbers (regardless of whether they are with one carrier or more than one)
Many people have a work/business number and a personal number, for example. Or maybe one you give out only to family and close friends and a second personal line you give out more freely, etc. This works fine with PM, and you could have either your primary line, secondary line, or both, with PM. Dual SIM phones allow you to have both active at the same time for calls and SMS texting.
2) Getting some extra data
Maybe you have a PM plan that only includes a fairly limited data amount but you anticipate needing more and find a great deal on a data-only plan from another provider (example: a "tablet" plan from certain providers). You could pop that SIM into your second slot. You can only have one SIM or the other active for data at any given time, but you can easily switch back and forth between the two as needed (to manage your data usage between the two). This works well with PM too.
2.5) a bonus option: hybrid of 1 and 2: you could potentially get yourself a talk+text+data plan from more than one provider and have both active for calling and texting and switch back and forth the active data SIM as needed.
3) For travel. Some people only use one SIM at home but when they leave the country they like to pick up either a local SIM in their destination or an international "travel SIM" provider, and pop it in the second slot to help manage roaming costs from their home provider. For example, most post-paid providers offer "roam like home"/"easy roam" type services that cost around $9-10 per day in the US or $13 or so per day internationally and give you access to your regular plan features but from another country. Those costs can add up pretty quickly! So maybe you only enable that SIM every few days to check for incoming text messages to help save on the cost (incoming SMS are free so that wouldn't cost you anything--though if you replied you'd activate a 24 hour period and get billed for a day) and use an inexpensive local SIM from the country(s) you're visiting to do most of your data, calling local businesses/friends/relatives, etc.
This 3rd scenario is the one that's limited use with PM. If you're a snowbird in the US for extended periods, it might be helpful as you can use a US provider (e.g. Mint or many others) for your day to day stuff, and activate PM US add-on(s) as/when needed. However, of course since you can't get any service at all with PM outside of Canada and the USA, if you were travelling internationally, you could just leave your PM SIM at home and use a local one even with just one SIM slot.
Hopefully that helps explain the advantage of multiple SIM. Not everyone needs it, but it can be nice for the flexibility. This is particularly true if you plan to keep your phone for extended periods of time, since your needs can change over time. (Maybe you get a new job that requires you to travel frequently, or get hooked on some new game or social network or streaming and start needing a lot more mobile data, or don't want to carry a second phone for business use but keep a separate phone number. Food for thought.
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