Unlocking phones

What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the local
mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not unlock
their phones for you. I can see their point but I won't buy a phone if I
have to be locked into them while traveling in other countries for extended
periods of time. A day or two is ok but that's it. Is this really their
policy or just that of an uninformed rep?

Thanks,
Bob

---

› See More: Unlocking phones

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <Ti9rd.591911$mD.578198@attbi_s02> on Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:41:07 GMT, "Bob
K." <[email protected]> wrote:

>What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the local
>mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not unlock
>their phones for you. I can see their point but I won't buy a phone if I
>have to be locked into them while traveling in other countries for extended
>periods of time. A day or two is ok but that's it. Is this really their
>policy or just that of an uninformed rep?

Uninformed rep.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:41:07 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
in alt.cellular.cingular:

>What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the local
>mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not unlock
>their phones for you.

The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.

(You didn't hear it from me.)

I travel to the UK almost every summer this year I took my V400 with me when
I called CS they gave me a few options but I took what my cousin suggested
and had it UNLOCKED and I used a prepaid sim card to unlock it was easy

"Bob K." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:Ti9rd.591911$mD.578198@attbi_s02...
> What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the
local
> mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not
unlock
> their phones for you. I can see their point but I won't buy a phone if I
> have to be locked into them while traveling in other countries for
extended
> periods of time. A day or two is ok but that's it. Is this really their
> policy or just that of an uninformed rep?
>
> Thanks,
> Bob
>
>

Do you mean "unlocked" right out of the box?



"Al Klein" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:41:07 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
> in alt.cellular.cingular:
>
> >What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the
local
> >mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not
unlock
> >their phones for you.
>
> The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
>
> (You didn't hear it from me.)

Al Klein wrote:
>
>
> The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
>
> (You didn't hear it from me.)

This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
locked.

What qualifies as a international phone?

850/1900 is not international
but
850/900/1900 MHz or 850/900/1800/1900 MHz are?




"R.M" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Al Klein wrote:
> >
> >
> > The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> > LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
> >
> > (You didn't hear it from me.)
>
> This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
> capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
> locked.
>
>

In article <[email protected]>,
"R.M" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Al Klein wrote:
> >
> >
> > The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> > LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
> >
> > (You didn't hear it from me.)
>
> This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
> capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
> locked.

and Cingular is to be commended for selling unlocked phones.

In article <Oxqrd.597255$mD.462626@attbi_s02>,
"Bob K." <[email protected]> wrote:

> What qualifies as a international phone?
>
> 850/1900 is not international
> but
> 850/900/1900 MHz or 850/900/1800/1900 MHz are?
>
>
>
>
> "R.M" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Al Klein wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> > > LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
> > >
> > > (You didn't hear it from me.)
> >
> > This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
> > capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
> > locked.
> >
> >

900 Mhz and 1800 MHz are the International frequencies

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 13:26:36 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
in alt.cellular.cingular:

>"Al Klein" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:41:07 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
>> in alt.cellular.cingular:
>>
>> >What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at the
>local
>> >mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will not
>unlock
>> >their phones for you.
>>
>> The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
>> LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
>>
>> (You didn't hear it from me.)

>Do you mean "unlocked" right out of the box?

The LG and the V180 both accepted T-Mobile SIMs - out of the box.

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 21:21:20 GMT, Jack Zwick <[email protected]>
said in alt.cellular.cingular:

>In article <[email protected]>,
> "R.M" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Al Klein wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
>> > LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
>> >
>> > (You didn't hear it from me.)
>>
>> This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
>> capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
>> locked.
>
>and Cingular is to be commended for selling unlocked phones.

Well ...

T-Mobile will give you the unlock code if a) you're traveling outside
the US/Canada area or b) the phone is still in use but the contract is
fulfilled.

But Cingular does go one stop better. Question is whether they'll
provide the lock code on a domestic phone after end-of-contract.

Who uses the 850 Mhz?

I see the 900/1800 are international and 1900 is US.



"Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <Oxqrd.597255$mD.462626@attbi_s02>,
> "Bob K." <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > What qualifies as a international phone?
> >
> > 850/1900 is not international
> > but
> > 850/900/1900 MHz or 850/900/1800/1900 MHz are?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "R.M" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > Al Klein wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> > > > LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
> > > >
> > > > (You didn't hear it from me.)
> > >
> > > This is normal, if Cingular sells a phone that has international
> > > capabilities, it will be sold unlocked. Only their US only phones are
> > > locked.
> > >
> > >
>
> 900 Mhz and 1800 MHz are the International frequencies

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 01:26:10 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
in alt.cellular.cingular:

>Who uses the 850 Mhz?

>I see the 900/1800 are international and 1900 is US.

The US uses 850/1900. (In the old days, 850 - which was called 800 -
was referred to as cellular, while 1900 was referred to as PCS,
leading to Sprint's ads about being 100% "PCS" and not cellular.)

Al, how can you check if the phone is unlocked or not? I just bought a
v180 (t-mobile) and gmm-software.com seems to be down.

Thanks in advance

Al Klein wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:41:07 GMT, "Bob K." <[email protected]> said
> in alt.cellular.cingular:
>
> >What's the deal with this and Cingular? I spoke to a rep today at
the local
> >mall while I consider switching and he told me that Cingular will
not unlock
> >their phones for you.
>
> The two phones I've tried foreign SIMs in so far - Motorola V180 and
> LG 1400 - weren't locked right out of the box.
>
> (You didn't hear it from me.)

On 11 Dec 2004 17:01:54 -0800, "an_mo" <[email protected]> said in
alt.cellular.cingular:

>Al, how can you check if the phone is unlocked or not? I just bought a
>v180 (t-mobile) and gmm-software.com seems to be down.

Put in a SIM from another carrier. If the phone accepts it, it's not
locked.