unlocked cell phones

[o_puppychow]

any suggestions on any places to buy online? Ebay is the meh.

[o_alligator]

ebay is the best, thank you.

[Circuitous]

Question. An unlocked cell phone is...?

[o_ghost]

The cell phones you get at a place like cingular or verizon are locked to that specific carrier. For instance, you cannt use a Cingular locked cell phone with T-mobile service. Phones now take what's called a "sim chip" that has all your account info on it. So if you get a new phone all you have to do is swap the sim chip from the old phone to the new phone and BAM you have your service on the new phone.

Unlocked phones are not tied to single provider, as long as the phone works on the network you are trying to use it on. For instance, Cingular uses a GSM network and Verizon uses a CDMA network.

And apart from e-bay, I don't know of any other sites that have unlocked cell phones at a reasonable price.

[o_|404|innoc-tpf-]

Also, Verizon locks out features that should not, IMO, be locked out. I see people on another forum I participate on complain frequently about the ability to bluetooth ring tones and the like to their phone. On Cingular I don't have that trouble.

[o_ghost]

Yea, I can understand them locking out something like bluetooth dial up networking but the ringtones seem a little extreme. I have a friend who has Verizon and he has to do a bunch of stuff to fake out the phone to use a custom ringtone.

[Circuitous]

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up.

[o_geokill----->]

Strange, I had a friend who bought a Razor (Cingular) and he took it to VErizon and they made it compatable with Verizon by just typing some shit on the computer and putting the Verizon Sim card. :s

[o_tennovan]

Carriers are capable of unlocking your phone for you, its a matter of whether they will or not. They charge $15 at the corporate store here (Cingular) but you can have it done by employees at the smaller stores or even some places online. Check out howardforums.com to get all that info, its where I used to hang out a lot.

[o_cudweiser]

Are you saying you had your phone unlocked here in LBK?? My phone is dying on me, and I'm looking to use one of my my old man's extra business phones. I'm on cingular too, but I need someone to unlock this phone if I get it.

[o_ihmhi]

You know, there is a huge forum dedicated to this. Google "cell phone hacks".

From what I've learned from there, each model has an unlock code. Punch it in and *bam*, your phome is unlocked.

You can do it yourself (since so many already have), so save yourself the $15. It's like paying Geek Squad $200 to reinstall Windows (sadly, so many do...)

[o_fresh]

in england we goto the local market or back alley phone shop and pay a fiver and get it unlocked on all networks.

[o_ghost]

Europe seems more advanced in the cellular area compared to the US, at least it seems that way from reading some forums.

[o_tennovan]

Originally Posted by Cudweiser

Are you saying you had your phone unlocked here in LBK?? My phone is dying on me, and I'm looking to use one of my my old man's extra business phones. I'm on cingular too, but I need someone to unlock this phone if I get it.

You can just go up there and ask. I didn't wanna be the person to suggest a "cell phone hacks" google search but it seems a very popular place to have your phone unlocked. All you need to find is someone with the software and the generosity. They put in some s/n's or something and they send you back the unlock code.

[o_general levy]

has the US caught up with Europe/Japan in mobiles yet?

it always seems when i see a hollywood movie that the phones they use are clunky old PoS. granted it takes about a year for a film to go from shooting to the big screen but they still seem wayyyy old

[o_geokill----->]

Originally Posted by General Levy

has the US caught up with Europe/Japan in mobiles yet?

it always seems when i see a hollywood movie that the phones they use are clunky old PoS. granted it takes about a year for a film to go from shooting to the big screen but they still seem wayyyy old

They do it on purpose by giving us old shit and we all buy it and then next week the new Razor 5000 comes out and all the people with money go and buy. It works so that's why they keep on doing it, basterds. Like My cell phone was good when I got it but a month later is was crap compare to the new phones with their 5 mega pixel cameras

[Circuitous]

Heh. I've got an old Nokia. It works as a phone, which is handy 'cuz that's why I bought it. Fuck the rest of that stuff.

Some girl was sitting next to me in class today, texting like crazy on her phone. Still not sure what the point of that is. If it's so important couldn't you just, I dunno, call 'em?

[o_geokill----->]

Texting is such a big fad right now, I only use it during school when I can't use the phone or at the movies but right now I got it cancel since I was using it too much and the bill when up.

[Circuitous]

So worth it though, right?

[o_geokill----->]

Hell Yeah
It made me realize how useless texting really is. I havent had a moment where I'm like "Damn Wish I could Text msg". Im so better off without it.