OTC (over the counter) exchange handsets (the kind you get when you trade in
a defective phone) are refurbished phones.  They often have remnants of
their previous users on them; a friend of mine traded in his VTech phone and
found himself with a whole second set of contacts which were already on the
phone.  Your phone was probably unlocked by its previous owner, and never
re-locked.

CU

Actually, Fido's been hit and miss.  I remember that the first 'world'
phone they sold, the motorola l7089, came unlocked.  The Ericsson T28
or T39 that they sold, some batches were locked and some were not.  Of
late though, it seems that all of their handsets have been locked.  If
you're unsure, you can always ask to borrow a buddy's Rogers card to
test, as someone suggested they did.

If the phone you buy is locked and you don't want to buy a cable and
try to find sofware and go through the hassle of figuring it out, you
can usually find an asian shop in most larger cities that's willing to
unlock it for 20-30 dollars.

With the prices they've started charging for the phones now (it
appears the days of the subsidy are long gone, at least if you don't
plan on signing up for 2 years - and let's face it, no one knows if
this company is going to be around for that long with their spotty
financial history), you'd be better served browsing froogle or yahoo
shopping for deals on unlocked phones.  The prices, even after
currency conversion and shipping, often come out to less than or about
the same price that Fido charges, but it comes unlocked.

Just a few suggestions.  I hope they help.

Fido like all GSM service providers lock their phones. There are
exceptions like where Cingular didn't lock their Treo 600's (not sure
if they still sell them unlocked) and Rogers didn't lock their
Tungsten W (their Tungsten-W is still unlocked).

Steven Fisher <sdfisher@spamcop.net> wrote in alt.cellular.fido:

There are cheaper ways than going through Fido.

don't know what the threshold is, but if you have been with Fido long enough
and have racked up enough usage, they'll do it for free if you give them the
right excuse (e.g. you'll be in NYC for a month and want to use a local
pay-as-you-go etc...).

I've thought about trying to get my 6 year old 5190 unlocked so I can use
Rogers pay-as-you-go out in the sticks...

--
Dominic Richens | dominic@alumni.uottawa.ca
"If you're not *outraged*, you're not paying attention!"

I mentioned this near the top of the thread.  Go to froogle or yahoo
shopping and you'll inevitably get a deal that's at least as good if
not usually better than the service providers offer here in Canada,
but for an unlocked phone or PDA.  Example: the new Nokia 3100 that's
*coming soon* to Fido has been available with US online merchants for
some time and is pretty cheap now.

Even the subsidies on phones here are no longer competitive with
what's being offered in the US, where you can get phones like the v400
for nothing if you sign a contract.