At 23 Apr 2008 10:51:52 -0400 Rick wrote:
> My son has a Sony-Ericsson z525a and will be using it when he travels
> to Spain next month...
> The phone is currently locked, but Cingular gave me the unlock code
> and a procedure to follow in doing the unlock. My question about the
> procedure is that it says to remove the Cingular SIM card and put in
> the new SIM card BEFORE doing the unlock commands. Does this
> mean you can't unlock the phone while the Cingular SIM is still in it?
Depends on the phone. Some phones can't be unlocked with their regular
SIM, because the phone" sees" no problem with the current SIM and won't
start the unlock routine.
Some phones can be unlocked with their regular SIM, some with no SIM at all
in them, and some require a "foreign" (to the carrier- not necessarily a
foreign country!) SIM installed.
The real problem is that most phones only give a few tries to get it right
before the unlock proceedure "self destructs" disabling the phone from
being unlocked except by the manufacturer. When I tried unlocking my first
phone (a Nokia 8290) I used up 2 of 3 allowed attempts by not reading
carefully- the instructions specified removing the SIM, but I'd left it in.
If you don't want to risk activating the Spanish SIM's service early, find
a friend who uses T-Mobile and borrow their SIM for a minute- the unlock
proceedure will not hurt or alter the SIM in any way.
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