texting problems on new unlocked phone

i want to upgrade my phone with at&t to maybe a rzr.i am a gophone customer. i have been told if i buy an unlocked phone from ebay, amazon etc i cannot do cetain things like texting or voicemail? any codes to learn after i insert my sim card?

Voicemail and text messaging are the two features which work as soon as you put the SIM card into the phone. WAP and MMS need configuration if the phone is not branded with Cingular or AT&T Mobility firmware. Locking or unlocking alone has no effect upon how the phone works, only whether it will accept a SIM card from other carriers. An unlocked Cingular/AT&T Mobility phone will work the same way as a locked Cingular/AT&T Mobility phone. It is the unbranding of the firmware which makes a difference.

tnkx for the help

It also depends on your plan. SOme plans enable certain features. ie: I had a Blackjack and without the $39.95 smartphone plane I could not text.

Neil S.

buying an unlocked phone, and buying a locked phone the only difference is the freedom to use the same phone from carrier to another carrier. There is no restriction to sms or voice mail if your unlocked will be used on cingular, cingular probably said that so they can keep your business forever and ever

I had that problem with my phone. I bought it from wirefly and I guess because it was so far away the settings were completely different. I didn't have a SIM card from a previous phone and used the one the phone came with. After sitting on the phone with my carrier getting all the settings right it still didn't work. Turns out it was my sim card. Once I went to a store here and changed it everything worked fine. I'm just telling that incase you run into the same problem I had. If you have your sim card though, it should work fine depending on the phone and as a previous reply mentioned, your plan itself.

I have just gotten the Black Jack II which is a AT&T phone and I have T-mobile. I was able to text and receive texts the first day but on the second day I could not send them although I could receive them.

I realize that internet something that has to be unlocked, but everything I know and have heard says that texting is not. Why can I not send texts?

Yes this is correct, the only difference between a phone from a carrier and an unlocked one is that it does not have the settings for the network (other then the fact that its unlocked). You can always call the carrier and get the settings and input it. I know nokia has the settings online and you can send them to your phone, I had an 8801 unlocked and just sent the ATT settings to my phone. Worked perfectly with no problems at all