Unlocking Cellphones

[monkey530]

Anyone ever unlock their cellphones by themselves? I am trying it right now...

[TravelingJ-cl]

I bought an unlocked cell from a friend once. It was a Cingular phone that he was going to unlock for me to use on T Mobile. All he had to do was call Cingular and tell them that he was going to be traveling out of the country, and needed it unlocked to use the overseas cell chips. Worked fine for us!

[monkey530]

I should have my friend do that...

[The EVP]

Yup....the carriers will give you the unlock codes. If I remember correctly, all they need is the IEMI off the phone.

[Matt257]

there are a few sites out there where you can get the unlock codes by using your IMEI number. Although i would be very cautious doing this as there are also alot of viruses. In the uk we have to pay to get the unlock code from the manufacturer. Not sure if its the same in the US. If it is free i would definately recommend going to them.

[The EVP]

Originally Posted by matt257

there are a few sites out there where you can get the unlock codes by using your IMEI number. Although i would be very cautious doing this as there are also alot of viruses. In the uk we have to pay to get the unlock code from the manufacturer. Not sure if its the same in the US. If it is free i would definately recommend going to them.

No charge here that I am aware of. However, when you unlock the phone, you may lose the preset data and internet settings. You'll have to get those from your carrier if you do.

[baba]

What is the advantage to unlocking a cell phone??

[jim@mindofmen.com]

Since the cell carriers deeply discount the phones they sell here in exchange for getting you to sign a 1-2 year contract, they lock the phones so that they can only be used on their network. This sort of thing primarily happens with GSM phones such as those used on T-Mobile and ATT&T's network here in the U.S.

The beauty of a GSM phone is that not only can you use it here in the U.S. as well as in much of the rest of the world (unlike most phones from Verizon and Sprint which use CDMA technology that will not work overseas), they use something called a SIM card, which is a little smartcard the size of a thumbnail that you can take out of one phone and put into another. Essentially all of the information about your account is stored in that card and by simply moving it from one phone to another, you can change phones that you use without calling your carrier.

A phone that is locked is tied to one specific network. A good example is the Apple iPhone. It is a GSM phone meaning that while it is sold by AT&T for use on their network, there is no technical reason why you could not simply remove the AT&T SIM card and replace it with a T-Mobile one and start to use it on a T-Mobile network. That is, no reason other than the fact that the phone itself is locked so that it will not function unless you are using a AT&T sim card.

Unlocking the phone means that you can use it on any network with any SIM card. This is of particular interest to those of us in the U.S. as we generally get the crappiest phones in the world, but there is no reason why you could not purchase a cool phone in Europe and slap in a AT&T SIM card and now you have a really nice phone that works over here.

[pv1191-cl]

Never done it myself. There are a couple shops near me that will unlock them for $10. I've had it done a few times. All the phones worked fine

[baba]

Originally Posted by jim@mindofmen.com

Since the cell carriers deeply discount the phones they sell here in exchange for getting you to sign a 1-2 year contract, they lock the phones so that they can only be used on their network. This sort of thing primarily happens with GSM phones such as those used on T-Mobile and ATT&T's network here in the U.S.

The beauty of a GSM phone is that not only can you use it here in the U.S. as well as in much of the rest of the world (unlike most phones from Verizon and Sprint which use CDMA technology that will not work overseas), they use something called a SIM card, which is a little smartcard the size of a thumbnail that you can take out of one phone and put into another. Essentially all of the information about your account is stored in that card and by simply moving it from one phone to another, you can change phones that you use without calling your carrier.

A phone that is locked is tied to one specific network. A good example is the Apple iPhone. It is a GSM phone meaning that while it is sold by AT&T for use on their network, there is no technical reason why you could not simply remove the AT&T SIM card and replace it with a T-Mobile one and start to use it on a T-Mobile network. That is, no reason other than the fact that the phone itself is locked so that it will not function unless you are using a AT&T sim card.

Unlocking the phone means that you can use it on any network with any SIM card. This is of particular interest to those of us in the U.S. as we generally get the crappiest phones in the world, but there is no reason why you could not purchase a cool phone in Europe and slap in a AT&T SIM card and now you have a really nice phone that works over here.

Thanks for the info. My phone uses a sim card, and I have used it in Italy, mexico and france without any difficulities.

[e-man]

Some carriers won't give you the unlock codes if that phone is still under contract.

I've bought an unlocked phone before. Often, things like email or voice mail functions won't work properly. You may meed to download the bios update that works with the new carrier, if available.