Not exactly what you were looking for, but: I unlocked my locked, already-subscribed phone, and it continued to work no problems.
For fun? To flip a vanishingly small bird at The Man? I don't know.
One can unlock a phone, but no one can unlock the mysteries of Standpipe Bridgeplate.
A few years ago I bought an unlocked phone which did more than my original phone (did bluetooth connectivity to my powerbook, for example) and moved my t-mobile sim over into it and it just worked. Later, when I was visiting England, I bought a pay as you go sim and switched it into the phone and it worked there (which meant I avoided $1/minute roaming charges).
But if you already have a working phone that does what you want and don't expect to travel, there's no advantage.
Thanks. I'm looking to get a new phone, and what I want isn't carried by my provider.
I buy all of my phones unlocked from Expansys and other import vendors. Never had a problem with either Cingular or T-Mobile (other than general poor GSM coverage). Here in the Bay Area, you can also go to Mobile Kangaroo and have most popular models unlocked for about $25-$30.
What does unlocked mean? Not tied to a specific carrier?
An unrelated counterquestion:
Did you drive the ovaries off the blog?
it shouldn't matter. just stick your chip in (always dangerous advice, huh?). by the way, cingular's phones are now all unlocked. i've stuck chips from maybe 15 different countries in a couple of cingular phones and they all work.
just make sure that the phone yr buying unlocked is tri-band or quad-band: the US uses a different frequency range to most other countries for GSM, and most GSM handsets manufactured *aren't* tri- or quad-band (look for frequencies 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz, to be certain).
and don't buy a CDMA handset from anywhere other than the country yr planning on using it in - it just won't work.
I just bought a Nokia 3300 unlocked (hey it was cheap and needed) and I have Cingular too ('course, they support the 3300 but I don't think there would have been any issue if they hadn't either; another friend of mine bought the UK version of his phone unlocked off of eBay and it works like a charm).
Not to pick a fight, but I would be very surprised if 11 was accurate. Unless Cingular sells all of their phones for $100-200 more than anyone else, which doesn't seem to be the case. Perhaps they allow the SIMs of foreign carriers with which they have roaming agreements.
I bought an unlocked Sony Ericsson T39m off of ebay several years back. Great phone. It's very nice to be able to just drop a SIM into it when overseas (although purchasing the necessary SIM was difficult -- I eventually found a phone kiosk run by a helpful pair of sisters who helped me fake the necessary Italian government documentation). I had no problem using it with T-Mobile here in the US.
I have heard that the best way to get an unlocked phone is to head to the nearest Chinatown, find one of those shops that sells every sub-$100 electronic gizmo ever manufactured, and make discreet inquiries. But if you're buying a new phone there isn't much point to that, since it'd only apply if you were buying a locked phone from another carrier, which would be silly.
What phone are you looking at? Some phones can't be unlocked, and others have weird quirks, so it might be worth sharing with the group.
need code for unlocking my sony ericsson T290i, somebody help me
Does anyboy know how to unlock a Nokia 3200?