Unlocked phones

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Adam - 04 Sep 2005 00:49 GMT

I bought my Audiovox SMT5600 a month before Cingular bought ATT and I
have all 3 of my phones on a family plan with ATT currently. My wife
wants a new phone and the only option Cingular is giving me is to throw
away all 3 of my phones(since they are locked for ATT) and buy 3 new
phones with Cingular so we can keep out family plan. It's either that
or have 2 separate plans (2 phones on ATT 1 phone on Cingular). What I
want to do is unlock my Nokia and Audiovox MST 5600 and buy by wife a
new phone then place the 2 unlocked phones on Cingular. Anyone know of
cheap places to get unlock codes or have any suggestions. Anyone had
any luck doing this?

I really hate the US for locking their phones and it really sucks that I
have to buy 3 new phones just to buy 1 and stay on the family plan.

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Elmo P. Shagnasty - 04 Sep 2005 01:12 GMT

> I bought my Audiovox SMT5600 a month before Cingular bought ATT and I
> have all 3 of my phones on a family plan with ATT currently. My wife
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> cheap places to get unlock codes or have any suggestions. Anyone had
> any luck doing this?

There are plenty of web sites with the Nokia unlock information.

You can buy phones from anywhere; as long as they're GSM and will accept
your ATT SIM card, you're golden. Phones that have been subsidy locked
to ATT will work, and any unlocked GSM phone will work.

So don't worry about moving to the orange side of the house. Just get
an unlocked phone of your choice. Ebay is one place, amazon.com is
another. If you go to http://forums.cingular.com and poke around,
you'll find a post that is either constantly repeated or else is
referred to by people asking these same questions.

For what it's worth, Nokia phones seem to be the easiest to unlock--and
you can do it yourself for free. Regardless, you might wander to your
local cell phone/service retailer and ask about unlocking services;
you'll find someone local who can unlock just about anything for not
much money, if you can't figure out how to do it yourself.

So just go get any GSM phone. Warning: make sure it supports 850 and
1900 frequencies. Some support 850/1800/1900, some support
900/1800/1900, and some support 850/900/1800/1900. You need 850 and
1900.

phonescoop.com is a GREAT place to investigate phones. howardforums is
another site for research.

Also research the Cingular side carefully; you'll probably find that if
you move to the Orange ("Cingular") side of the house, you'll pay more
and you'll get less. For example, my ATT Wireless plan has 2300
minutes, 7pm nights, no-charge checking of voicemail, and free incoming
text messages for $98 for two phones. The Orange side of the house has
9pm nights, they charge for checking voicemail, and they charge for
incoming text messages--and for roughly comparable minutes (probably
fewer minutes), they'll charge around $30 more a month.

The only thing the Orange side has is rollover minutes. Big whoop.

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BBB - 05 Sep 2005 14:18 GMT

> So just go get any GSM phone. Warning: make sure it supports 850 and
> 1900 frequencies.

Make double sure it supports 850 and 1900 MHz. Some online phone sellers
advertise in their these frequencies in the specs, but they ship a
European/Asian phone that runs on 900/1800/1900. Without the 850 band,
your phone may not get sh.t for service, ESPECIALLY a former ATTWS customer
on Cingular.

Nokia phones are easy to unlock, however. Lots of people post the codes.

>> I bought my Audiovox SMT5600 a month before Cingular bought ATT and I
>> have all 3 of my phones on a family plan with ATT currently. My wife
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>
> The only thing the Orange side has is rollover minutes. Big whoop.

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Joseph - 04 Sep 2005 02:51 GMT

>I really hate the US for locking their phones and it really sucks that I
>have to buy 3 new phones just to buy 1 and stay on the family plan.

News flash: The US is not the only country whose carriers lock their
phones.

- -

Reply to this Message

Tropical Haven - 04 Sep 2005 06:39 GMT

>
>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
>

No, it isn't, but it seems to me that it's more popular here to contract
service and receive locked phones. Most of my friends in Europe pay up
the ying yang for the phones, but they don't have the commitments that
we have here.

TH

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Joseph - 04 Sep 2005 16:36 GMT

>No, it isn't, but it seems to me that it's more popular here to contract
>service and receive locked phones. Most of my friends in Europe pay up
>the ying yang for the phones, but they don't have the commitments that
>we have here.

Really! I wonder then why carphonewarehouse in the UK
<http://carphonewarehouse.com> and their equivalent in the Netherlands
<http://phonehouse.nl> sell skads and skads of free phones provided
you take out a contract. I hardly think they're alone in doing this.
Maybe your friends just like paying more money?

- -

Reply to this Message

Tropical Haven - 05 Sep 2005 03:28 GMT

>>No, it isn't, but it seems to me that it's more popular here to contract
>>service and receive locked phones. Most of my friends in Europe pay up
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
>

I didn't say they weren't available, I was trying to point out that the
no-contract option is more readily available in other parts of the world
than in the United States.

TH

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Joseph - 05 Sep 2005 04:31 GMT

>>>No, it isn't, but it seems to me that it's more popular here to contract
>>>service and receive locked phones. Most of my friends in Europe pay up
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>no-contract option is more readily available in other parts of the world
>than in the United States.

Sorry. That's *not* what you wrote. You also wrote that they don't
have the commitments that we have here which is not true either when
you get a subsidized phone. You don't have to have a contract with
cingular either if you bring your own equipment with you. Not many
people do. Whose fault is that?

This only applies to GSM anyway since the CDMA carriers such as Sprint
and Verizon modify the firmware on their handsets so they're never
completely the same.
- -

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vjp2.at@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com - 05 Sep 2005 18:22 GMT

Unlocked Ericson R380 works swell with Cingular but it costs $80.

- = -
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BachMozart ReaganQuayle EvrytanoKastorian
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
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André Warner - 06 Sep 2005 15:18 GMT

Google is your friend.

I just found all the information I needed last night to unlock my AT&T
Audiovox SMT5600 for free in the comfort of my own home. Search for
"Audiovox SMT5600 unlock software" and poke around. I didn't bookmark the
sites with the information since I unlocked the phone and it works fine. I
tested it with a TMobile SIM I have and it connected right up. Ditto for
Nokia phones. Search Google and you should find severeal sites that will
either calculate the unlock code for you or provide a link to download
software that will do it for you. Good luck.

A.

>I bought my Audiovox SMT5600 a month before Cingular bought ATT and I have
>all 3 of my phones on a family plan with ATT currently. My wife wants a
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> I really hate the US for locking their phones and it really sucks that I
> have to buy 3 new phones just to buy 1 and stay on the family plan.

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LAMARCOMM - 13 Sep 2005 03:12 GMT

My MPX200 kinda died....I thought it was My ATT sim...went to a cingular
store that had ATT sims found out it wasnt the sim but the phone...so I got
a new ATT sim free and bought a new MPX200 unlocked on ebay for $80 and
upgraded the ROM to 2003...(which I found on the net for free!!!) ALL is
good!!!

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