Is this phone locked?

Bought my friend's Cingular-branded Motorola V3 (it shows the "Cingular" logo
and name whenever turned on). I put my T-Mobile SIM in and I am making and
receiving calls.

To my understanding, if this phone was locked I shouldn't be able to use it
on T-Mobile.

It is unlocked? Or is there some other yet-to-be-discovered way in which this
phone is limited in features that must be "unlocked"?

Thanks,
--
DaveC
me@bogusdomain.net
This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

In article <0001HW.C1BC38970011078CF02845B0@news.readfreenews.net>,
DaveC <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>Bought my friend's Cingular-branded Motorola V3 (it shows the "Cingular" logo
>and name whenever turned on). I put my T-Mobile SIM in and I am making and
>receiving calls.
>
>To my understanding, if this phone was locked I shouldn't be able to use it
>on T-Mobile.
>
>It is unlocked? Or is there some other yet-to-be-discovered way in which this
>phone is limited in features that must be "unlocked"?

It is unlocked. If it were locked, the phone would ask you to enter a
subsidy password on power-up.

"DaveC" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:0001HW.C1BC38970011078CF02845B0@news.readfreenews.net...
> Bought my friend's Cingular-branded Motorola V3 (it shows the "Cingular"
> logo
> and name whenever turned on). I put my T-Mobile SIM in and I am making and
> receiving calls.
>
> To my understanding, if this phone was locked I shouldn't be able to use
> it
> on T-Mobile.
>
> It is unlocked? Or is there some other yet-to-be-discovered way in which
> this
> phone is limited in features that must be "unlocked"?
>
> Thanks,
> --
> DaveC
> me@bogusdomain.net
> This is an invalid return address
> Please reply in the news group
>

It is 'Unlocked', but not debranded. I have 2 L6's I unlocked that are the
same.Debranding would be done via flash, but not required unless the
Cingular logo really bothers you that much.

In article <OjJlh.7273$2U4.6921@newsfe16.lga>, PC Medic wrote:
>

>> Bought my friend's Cingular-branded Motorola V3 (it shows the "Cingular"
>> logo
>> and name whenever turned on). I put my T-Mobile SIM in and I am making and
>> receiving calls.
>>
>> To my understanding, if this phone was locked I shouldn't be able to use
>> it
>> on T-Mobile.
>>
>> It is unlocked?

> It is 'Unlocked', but not debranded.

Yes. It wouldn't register using a T-Mobile SIM if it was still
SIM-locked to Cingular. The Cingular RAZRs will work fine on T-Mo.
You'll probably want to have T-Mo update the phone with T-Mo firmware.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Thus spake Mike S.:

> It is unlocked. If it were locked, the phone would ask you to enter a
> subsidy password on power-up.

Thanks for that info.

I'm surprised, happily so. I presumed that all carriers -- at least the major
players -- would disallow their phones to be used on other services.
--
DaveC
me@bogusdomain.net
This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

"Steven J. Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in
news:slrnepeoi6.15b.sjsobol@amethyst.justthe.net:

> You'll probably want to have T-Mo update the phone with T-Mo firmware.
>
>

Wonder how it would work with the unmolested manufacturer's firmware
installed, seeing as how it doesn't seem to notice Cingular's firmware?

He might gain some nice features the cellphone companies usually hobble up,
trying to sell you what you wouldn't need.



--
http://www.epic.org/privacy/rfid/verichip.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeriChip
http://www.verichipcorp.com/
Tracked like a dog, every license/product/tax.
Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads:
17 and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the
name of the beast, or the number of his name...

DaveC wrote in alt.cellular

> Thus spake Mike S.:
>
>> It is unlocked. If it were locked, the phone would ask you to enter a
>> subsidy password on power-up.
>
> Thanks for that info.
>
> I'm surprised, happily so. I presumed that all carriers -- at least the
> major players -- would disallow their phones to be used on other
> services.

In general, all phones are locked to the carrier. However, gsm phones can
be unlocked so that they can be used on other gsm carriers. Cingular requires
that you be a customer in good standing before they will give you the unlock
code. Or you can get it unlocked from outside sources.

--
Dick #1349
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~Benjamin Franklin

Home Page: dickcr.iwarp.com
email: dickcr@comcast.net

Thus spake Dick C:

> In general, all phones are locked to the carrier. However, gsm phones can
> be unlocked so that they can be used on other gsm carriers. Cingular requires
> that you be a customer in good standing before they will give you the unlock
> code. Or you can get it unlocked from outside sources.

This phone was bought new by a friend last year. He recently bought a new(er)
phone, and I bought his V3. All I did was pop in my T-Mobile SIM and it
worked.

Must have been an oversight on someone's part. No unlocking required...
--
DaveC
me@bogusdomain.net
This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

In article <Xns98AA7A0E117AEnoonehomecom@208.49.80.253>, Larry wrote:
> "Steven J. Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in
> news:slrnepeoi6.15b.sjsobol@amethyst.justthe.net:
>
>> You'll probably want to have T-Mo update the phone with T-Mo firmware.
>>
>>
>
> Wonder how it would work with the unmolested manufacturer's firmware
> installed, seeing as how it doesn't seem to notice Cingular's firmware?
>
> He might gain some nice features the cellphone companies usually hobble up,
> trying to sell you what you wouldn't need.

He might, or he might not.

You're assuming T-Mo is as bad as Verizon with regards to locking out
features. They're actually nowhere near as bad.

In fact, my mother-in-law had an unlocked Cingular RAZR that she
activated on her T-Mo account. She ended up *having* to do the firmware
update to fix a couple SMS/Voicemail issues where the operating
parameters were different between T-Mo's network and Cingular's network.
(by the way... in reply to the person who said "why would you
upgrade the firmware and risk breaking stuff"... *that's* why, plus T-Mo
is not going to support a phone with someone else's firmware)

Not only did the upgrade fix her problem, she didn't lose any of the
features Cingular originally had enabled. At least AFAIK.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

In article <ifhgp29f7p47c5bu3gp0j03d1p43k81v9l@4ax.com>, Anthony R. Gold wrote:

> That is not risk-free. So why would anyone be daft enough to mess around
> doing that to a perfectly good working phone? A techno-suicidal impulse?

When my mother-in-law bought her unlocked RAZR off eBay, some of the
features didn't work - basic features like SMS.

The firmware update fixed that.

Plus, T-Mo most likely isn't going to support a phone that isn't running their
firmware.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Dick C schrieb:
>
> In general, all phones are locked to the carrier.

Fortunately this is NOT true.

It may be rule of thumb in the US.

But in Europe the rule of thumb is that phones are NOT locked, when the
come with a 2-year contract.
But as a rule of thumb they ARE locked here if the subsidized phone
comes with a "prepaid" of "pay-as-you-go" card.

Wolfgang