Cell Phone/SIM Card Query

G

gunnerhorn

100+ Posts
If I were to buy a totally rad phone from Asia, would I be able to pick up Cingular or T-Mobile service in the States just by switching up the SIM card?

I am tired of having large, bulky, uncool phones.
 
I don't know where to get them, but....

most companies "lock" their phone, meaning the software on the phone will only let you use their network. they do this b/c cell phones are a loss leader and they dont want to give you a deal just to have you leave for some other service. getting it "unlocked" usually requires entering a code into the phone. if accepted, you can then use the phone with any carrier. i did this with an old nokia phone and it worked exactly as advertised.
 
so, if a get a phone from there, i can just toss in a sim from a north american carrier, then if i go to hong kong, toss in a sim from a hong kong carrier?

this is confusing
 
yep. sim card is what identifies you, not the phone w/ gsm carriers.

I had a p900 (from expansys) and now I use an imate jam (from a guy who imports them up in nj - I'll post a link to his site once I can find it.)

I've been to Brazil (sao paolo and rio) to Zurich, CH to Belgium, even to Moscow, and have local tmobile service in austin.

After you notify tmob you'll be traveling abroad, it will pick up whatever service it can find and charge you for it. (albeit pretty darn expensive).

If you switch btw 2 or 3 regular spots, the thing to do would be to buy a service account wherever else you'll be, and just swap out the sim cards.

I can put my sim in any unlocked phone and it becomes my 512 number automagically.

The key is to buy already unlocked phones, or do it yourself. (viva la internet.)

current hot phone is the eten 500 or the imate universal which is due out soon.
 
Hm, so let me get this straight (apologies, I want to be informed before I abandon Sprint PCS and go GSM)...

Once the phone is unlocked, you can use whatever provider's SIM card you buy?

I really want the Nokia 7600.
 
p910 is good, but there are better options, I think.

I had a p900. - main issue with that one is that it takes duo pros, not straight up SDs for example.

my current phone has a 2 gb SD card in it. It's now a phone/pda/miniminimini ipod.
 
gunner -

in direct response to your question, you bet. It's kind of nice to walk in, tell them what plan you want, and then have them hand you the sim card (it's about 1"by 1" or so). Then they ask you if you want a phone or whatever, and you say, no thanks, slide it into your phone, and you're done.

I actually have an old t68i that I use when I don't want to carry around my big one.

I also bought an older gsm phone from the net, then unlocked it myself and put my wife's sim card in it. (she liked the form factor).
 
btw, if you have questions regarding specific phones or providers in the states or worldwide, then checkout:

howardforums.com

it's almost always the best source for opinions, rumors, and advice
 
thanks, that's pretty cool.

i think i'm going to go ahead and drop sprint. at this moment, i'm looking at the nokia 7600, 7260, and 7280. the 7280 almost looks too cool for me.
 
one more thing I forgot (lest I be accused of spamming (grin))

if you work for a major corp and you decide to buy from expansys, be sure to call them up and ask for a corp. discount. depends on the phone, but it's been up to around $120 before. (granted, the phone was around $400, but...)
 
For those of us on the low end of the technology learning curve:

Are all SIM cards a standard size and format? In other words, if I have one in my Motorola phone, can I buy another brand of phone, and just transfer the card? And it seems like some of the posts on this thread have hinted at it, but if I don't want to go to my friendly Cingular store to buy the phone, are there ways to unlock a phone that I buy off the Internet?
 
My Cingular phone broke a while back, and while they were sending me a replacement, I used my boyfriend's Asian phone with my sim card. Worked great.
 
Right. at worst, you can just sell it on ebay.

In response to previous questions, yes, sim cards are all the same size.

(I switched from att to tmobile, for example...)
 
sim card info

that's a link to info about sim cards.

One of the other possibly lesser known features is to save some quantity of contact info (phone number, name, address, etc.) to the sim card so that when you change phones, you can just copy it over from the sim card to the phone - or just use them directly off the sim card. *note that the capacity is limited - would prob. be about 10 contacts or so...
 
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