OT: How to unlock phones?

[exsdgal]

Thank you for the helpful suggestions. One of my BB devices is the Sprint Tour which has a sim card. Hopefully I can get that unlocked by calling the nice folks at CS.

I found unlock sites require IMEI numbers. How safe is it to provide these details?

In the past I have purchased unlocked devices from Amazon and did not have to worry about providing device information to 3rd party sites. I would love to “safely” unlock the Moto Cliq and BB Tour so I can use with my AT&T sim. Would also like to hear about your experience with any of the unlock sites. Thx.

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. There are no sim cards in their phones.

Some overseas locations are CDMA – but most of Europe is GSM. I have a cheapie unlocked GSM phone just for travel.

BB’s come in both CDMA and GSM flavors. If it’s a CDMA one you’re out of luck.[/quote]

Well your right but not in context of this conversation. Apparently he has the TOUR. The Tour is a Dual-Mode Phone. It has GSM if it has a SIM card in it. There are many offerings of Dual-Modes out there between VZW and Sprint.

Why you want to unlock a phone that is CMDA is beyond me. Neither company has a standard of excepting phones from outside sources. This is due to policies of preserving the network more than anything. Not all phones are created equal… Some phone could cause performance issues within the network and that is why they keep tight reigns on those things.

Besides… Whether you know it or not Sprint and VZW are roaming partners. That means CDMA phones will work on either network (even Cricket and Metro too).

CE

Actually as a addendum… And not aimed at you UCGal…

Turns out the Tour will do UMTS also… Basically you can unlock this phone in any manner you want too as long as it is within the Frequency range of the technology.

Though as I have said before on the CDMA side it makes little sense…

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. There are no sim cards in their phones.

Some overseas locations are CDMA – but most of Europe is GSM. I have a cheapie unlocked GSM phone just for travel.

BB’s come in both CDMA and GSM flavors. If it’s a CDMA one you’re out of luck.[/quote]

Well your right but not in context of this conversation. Apparently he has the TOUR. The Tour is a Dual-Mode Phone. It has GSM if it has a SIM card in it. There are many offerings of Dual-Modes out there between VZW and Sprint.

Why you want to unlock a phone that is CMDA is beyond me. Neither company has a standard of excepting phones from outside sources. This is due to policies of preserving the network more than anything. Not all phones are created equal… Some phone could cause performance issues within the network and that is why they keep tight reigns on those things.

Besides… Whether you know it or not Sprint and VZW are roaming partners. That means CDMA phones will work on either network (even Cricket and Metro too).

CE

Actually as a addendum… And not aimed at you UCGal…

Turns out the Tour will do UMTS also… Basically you can unlock this phone in any manner you want too as long as it is within the Frequency range of the technology.

Though as I have said before on the CDMA side it makes little sense…

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. There are no sim cards in their phones.

Some overseas locations are CDMA – but most of Europe is GSM. I have a cheapie unlocked GSM phone just for travel.

BB’s come in both CDMA and GSM flavors. If it’s a CDMA one you’re out of luck.[/quote]

Well your right but not in context of this conversation. Apparently he has the TOUR. The Tour is a Dual-Mode Phone. It has GSM if it has a SIM card in it. There are many offerings of Dual-Modes out there between VZW and Sprint.

Why you want to unlock a phone that is CMDA is beyond me. Neither company has a standard of excepting phones from outside sources. This is due to policies of preserving the network more than anything. Not all phones are created equal… Some phone could cause performance issues within the network and that is why they keep tight reigns on those things.

Besides… Whether you know it or not Sprint and VZW are roaming partners. That means CDMA phones will work on either network (even Cricket and Metro too).

CE

Actually as a addendum… And not aimed at you UCGal…

Turns out the Tour will do UMTS also… Basically you can unlock this phone in any manner you want too as long as it is within the Frequency range of the technology.

Though as I have said before on the CDMA side it makes little sense…

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. There are no sim cards in their phones.

Some overseas locations are CDMA – but most of Europe is GSM. I have a cheapie unlocked GSM phone just for travel.

BB’s come in both CDMA and GSM flavors. If it’s a CDMA one you’re out of luck.[/quote]

Well your right but not in context of this conversation. Apparently he has the TOUR. The Tour is a Dual-Mode Phone. It has GSM if it has a SIM card in it. There are many offerings of Dual-Modes out there between VZW and Sprint.

Why you want to unlock a phone that is CMDA is beyond me. Neither company has a standard of excepting phones from outside sources. This is due to policies of preserving the network more than anything. Not all phones are created equal… Some phone could cause performance issues within the network and that is why they keep tight reigns on those things.

Besides… Whether you know it or not Sprint and VZW are roaming partners. That means CDMA phones will work on either network (even Cricket and Metro too).

CE

Actually as a addendum… And not aimed at you UCGal…

Turns out the Tour will do UMTS also… Basically you can unlock this phone in any manner you want too as long as it is within the Frequency range of the technology.

Though as I have said before on the CDMA side it makes little sense…

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. There are no sim cards in their phones.

Some overseas locations are CDMA – but most of Europe is GSM. I have a cheapie unlocked GSM phone just for travel.

BB’s come in both CDMA and GSM flavors. If it’s a CDMA one you’re out of luck.[/quote]

Well your right but not in context of this conversation. Apparently he has the TOUR. The Tour is a Dual-Mode Phone. It has GSM if it has a SIM card in it. There are many offerings of Dual-Modes out there between VZW and Sprint.

Why you want to unlock a phone that is CMDA is beyond me. Neither company has a standard of excepting phones from outside sources. This is due to policies of preserving the network more than anything. Not all phones are created equal… Some phone could cause performance issues within the network and that is why they keep tight reigns on those things.

Besides… Whether you know it or not Sprint and VZW are roaming partners. That means CDMA phones will work on either network (even Cricket and Metro too).

CE

Actually as a addendum… And not aimed at you UCGal…

Turns out the Tour will do UMTS also… Basically you can unlock this phone in any manner you want too as long as it is within the Frequency range of the technology.

Though as I have said before on the CDMA side it makes little sense…

[Hatfield]

Agreed on the Sprint/Verizon thing – those phones are activated by ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and neither carrier will activate a phone that’s not already in their “system.”

As for GSM phones (or the GSM portion of multi-mode phones), if you don’t feel like DIY, most of those skeevy little independent mobile phone shops will unlock these phones for you for a nominal fee. About three years ago I bought a GSM RAZR for an upcoming Europe trip and had it unlocked at a little shop on Cass St. I bought the phone (used) there and they unlocked it for free, but otherwise the fee is pretty nominal.

Also, there is a San Diego based company (I think they’re on Garnet but they only do business through the mail) that sells international roaming SIM cards.

http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php

The one that I bought is a “ringback” service – to call out, you dial the full phone number, country code and all, and when you press send, the phone sends a text message to some server somewhere, and a few seconds later the phone rings. You answer, and it places your call for you.

The one that I got is something like 39 – 79 cents per minute in Europe, depending where you’re calling. Mine has a UK telephone number. But incoming calls are free and there’s no monthly fee. You do have to top up the card every nine months whether you use it or not, but the money doesn’t go away, it accumulates.

This per-minute rate is much higher than the single-country SIM cards you can buy in kiosks across Europe & Asia. The big advantage of this card is that, besides free incoming calls, your phone number is the same everywhere you go, and you’ll know what that phone number is before you leave for your trip. This is nice if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

[Hatfield]

Agreed on the Sprint/Verizon thing – those phones are activated by ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and neither carrier will activate a phone that’s not already in their “system.”

As for GSM phones (or the GSM portion of multi-mode phones), if you don’t feel like DIY, most of those skeevy little independent mobile phone shops will unlock these phones for you for a nominal fee. About three years ago I bought a GSM RAZR for an upcoming Europe trip and had it unlocked at a little shop on Cass St. I bought the phone (used) there and they unlocked it for free, but otherwise the fee is pretty nominal.

Also, there is a San Diego based company (I think they’re on Garnet but they only do business through the mail) that sells international roaming SIM cards.

http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php

The one that I bought is a “ringback” service – to call out, you dial the full phone number, country code and all, and when you press send, the phone sends a text message to some server somewhere, and a few seconds later the phone rings. You answer, and it places your call for you.

The one that I got is something like 39 – 79 cents per minute in Europe, depending where you’re calling. Mine has a UK telephone number. But incoming calls are free and there’s no monthly fee. You do have to top up the card every nine months whether you use it or not, but the money doesn’t go away, it accumulates.

This per-minute rate is much higher than the single-country SIM cards you can buy in kiosks across Europe & Asia. The big advantage of this card is that, besides free incoming calls, your phone number is the same everywhere you go, and you’ll know what that phone number is before you leave for your trip. This is nice if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

[Hatfield]

Agreed on the Sprint/Verizon thing – those phones are activated by ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and neither carrier will activate a phone that’s not already in their “system.”

As for GSM phones (or the GSM portion of multi-mode phones), if you don’t feel like DIY, most of those skeevy little independent mobile phone shops will unlock these phones for you for a nominal fee. About three years ago I bought a GSM RAZR for an upcoming Europe trip and had it unlocked at a little shop on Cass St. I bought the phone (used) there and they unlocked it for free, but otherwise the fee is pretty nominal.

Also, there is a San Diego based company (I think they’re on Garnet but they only do business through the mail) that sells international roaming SIM cards.

http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php

The one that I bought is a “ringback” service – to call out, you dial the full phone number, country code and all, and when you press send, the phone sends a text message to some server somewhere, and a few seconds later the phone rings. You answer, and it places your call for you.

The one that I got is something like 39 – 79 cents per minute in Europe, depending where you’re calling. Mine has a UK telephone number. But incoming calls are free and there’s no monthly fee. You do have to top up the card every nine months whether you use it or not, but the money doesn’t go away, it accumulates.

This per-minute rate is much higher than the single-country SIM cards you can buy in kiosks across Europe & Asia. The big advantage of this card is that, besides free incoming calls, your phone number is the same everywhere you go, and you’ll know what that phone number is before you leave for your trip. This is nice if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

[Hatfield]

Agreed on the Sprint/Verizon thing – those phones are activated by ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and neither carrier will activate a phone that’s not already in their “system.”

As for GSM phones (or the GSM portion of multi-mode phones), if you don’t feel like DIY, most of those skeevy little independent mobile phone shops will unlock these phones for you for a nominal fee. About three years ago I bought a GSM RAZR for an upcoming Europe trip and had it unlocked at a little shop on Cass St. I bought the phone (used) there and they unlocked it for free, but otherwise the fee is pretty nominal.

Also, there is a San Diego based company (I think they’re on Garnet but they only do business through the mail) that sells international roaming SIM cards.

http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php

The one that I bought is a “ringback” service – to call out, you dial the full phone number, country code and all, and when you press send, the phone sends a text message to some server somewhere, and a few seconds later the phone rings. You answer, and it places your call for you.

The one that I got is something like 39 – 79 cents per minute in Europe, depending where you’re calling. Mine has a UK telephone number. But incoming calls are free and there’s no monthly fee. You do have to top up the card every nine months whether you use it or not, but the money doesn’t go away, it accumulates.

This per-minute rate is much higher than the single-country SIM cards you can buy in kiosks across Europe & Asia. The big advantage of this card is that, besides free incoming calls, your phone number is the same everywhere you go, and you’ll know what that phone number is before you leave for your trip. This is nice if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

[Hatfield]

Agreed on the Sprint/Verizon thing – those phones are activated by ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and neither carrier will activate a phone that’s not already in their “system.”

As for GSM phones (or the GSM portion of multi-mode phones), if you don’t feel like DIY, most of those skeevy little independent mobile phone shops will unlock these phones for you for a nominal fee. About three years ago I bought a GSM RAZR for an upcoming Europe trip and had it unlocked at a little shop on Cass St. I bought the phone (used) there and they unlocked it for free, but otherwise the fee is pretty nominal.

Also, there is a San Diego based company (I think they’re on Garnet but they only do business through the mail) that sells international roaming SIM cards.

http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php

The one that I bought is a “ringback” service – to call out, you dial the full phone number, country code and all, and when you press send, the phone sends a text message to some server somewhere, and a few seconds later the phone rings. You answer, and it places your call for you.

The one that I got is something like 39 – 79 cents per minute in Europe, depending where you’re calling. Mine has a UK telephone number. But incoming calls are free and there’s no monthly fee. You do have to top up the card every nine months whether you use it or not, but the money doesn’t go away, it accumulates.

This per-minute rate is much higher than the single-country SIM cards you can buy in kiosks across Europe & Asia. The big advantage of this card is that, besides free incoming calls, your phone number is the same everywhere you go, and you’ll know what that phone number is before you leave for your trip. This is nice if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

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