Unlocked lg CU500 has no service

Hi, I bought an unlocked phone, an lg cu500, and I put my old sim in the phone, it turns on and seems to work fine, except I get no service. I can't make calls or anything. I have att, is there anything i need to do to get the phone working?

Also, I think the phone is from australia because besides cingular it also says telstra when you turn it on. I googled that and it's an australian cell phone company. Would this cause the problem

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Originally Posted by steviewonder

Hi, I bought an unlocked phone, an lg cu500, and I put my old sim in the phone, it turns on and seems to work fine, except I get no service. I can't make calls or anything. I have att, is there anything i need to do to get the phone working?

Also, I think the phone is from australia because besides cingular it also says telstra when you turn it on. I googled that and it's an australian cell phone company. Would this cause the problem

Are you sure that this is not the TU500? There is no CU500 sold for Australian markets. The TU500 is triband 900/1800/1900. The 850 MHz band is WCDMA only and will only work in a 3G 850 MHz area. WCDMA is run on 1900 MHz in most of the AT&T Mobility markets.

I'm fairly positive it's a cu500. The inside of the phone behind the battery says cu500 so I don't know how it couldn't be. My razor v3 works fine where i am, and the cu500 is supposed to have all the same bands so I'm really confused as to why its not working.

It turns on, has all my contacts and phone number but no service at all.

The phone also has cingular printed on the front, so I really think it should work

Originally Posted by steviewonder

I'm fairly positive it's a cu500. The inside of the phone behind the battery says cu500 so I don't know how it couldn't be. My razor v3 works fine where i am, and the cu500 is supposed to have all the same bands so I'm really confused as to why its not working.

It turns on, has all my contacts and phone number but no service at all.

The phone also has cingular printed on the front, so I really think it should work

So it cannot be an Australian phone since the LG CU500 is only sold for AT&T Mobility/Cingular. It might have the settings to seek the 900/1800 MHz bands. Turn the Network Band Settings to automatic or 850/1900 MHz.

Your phone may be unbranded as well as unlocked. Unlocking alone would not turn on the ability to see the list of available networks unless you use a non-Cingular SIM card. You may have to manually configure the MEdia Net and the MMS settings.

I already had set the phone to automatic selection. But i do think that it is australian, it at least has telstra and bigpond software loaded on it. The internet browser is through that.

But I called at&t, and I think I figured out what the problem is. I'm going to college in vermont, but my family lives in new jersey, where i originally got the plan. Where I am right now only has partial service through a different company that lets at&t users roam into there network and still have service.

The rep told me that if i use the unlocked phone in an actually at&t coverage area it should work, and then i can roam into other networks. I'm going to try it out as soon as I can, but it might be awhile.

But do you think that would solve the problem?

And thanks for your help. I really appreciate it

I also have a cu500 with the same setup. Telstra with BIG POND.This is a setup for Mexico. Cingular said it was setup for T-MOBILE with their menu.I sent the phone back to L G to have the menu setup for AT&T, but after 2 wks. got the phone back with no changes. I'm new to cell phone forums but need help to change the menus. HEELLLLPPPPPP

I am curious as to whether you got your phone sorted out? I have a similar but reverse situation. I have the exact same phone as you. It is a CU500 phone purchased in the USA that carries the Cingular logo with my ATT service provider. I am currently working in Australia and brought my phone with me. You are right that Telstra is in Australia. By default my phone picks up their network here while I am roaming. I requested my phone to be unlocked before I got here so that I could buy a prepaid sim card and make calls on other networks. The phone is claimed to be tri band. The frequency here appears to be 900mhz for most carriers. However when I tried using prepaid sim cards from Telstra and Vodafone, the two main providers here, everything appears to be normal except for I cannot make or receive calls. Any attempts prompt me with an error that says Service Unavailable. If anyone has any insight to this issue I would love to know. I changed my network settings from automatic to manual and I select the only network that shows up which is Telstra 3G. I can only use my phone while roaming on my cingular/ATT network sim card. And the phone was successfully unlocked. I even spent an hour on the phone with my customer service and they could not help me.

Originally Posted by suitepeas

I am curious as to whether you got your phone sorted out? I have a similar but reverse situation. I have the exact same phone as you. It is a CU500 phone purchased in the USA that carries the Cingular logo with my ATT service provider. I am currently working in Australia and brought my phone with me. You are right that Telstra is in Australia. By default my phone picks up their network here while I am roaming. I requested my phone to be unlocked before I got here so that I could buy a prepaid sim card and make calls on other networks. The phone is claimed to be tri band. The frequency here appears to be 900mhz for most carriers. However when I tried using prepaid sim cards from Telstra and Vodafone, the two main providers here, everything appears to be normal except for I cannot make or receive calls. Any attempts prompt me with an error that says Service Unavailable. If anyone has any insight to this issue I would love to know. I changed my network settings from automatic to manual and I select the only network that shows up which is Telstra 3G. I can only use my phone while roaming on my cingular/ATT network sim card. And the phone was successfully unlocked. I even spent an hour on the phone with my customer service and they could not help me.

Telstra 3G is run on 850 MHz. The non-3G service is run on 900/1800 MHz. Many american phones have trouble when both the 850 MHz or 1900 MHz and the 900/1800 MHz bands are in operation in the same area. Testra recently permitted its prepaid accounts to use what it calls "Next G" service. Are you using a Telstra prepaid account or VodaPhone when you try the Testra 3g service? Can manually select 900/1800 MHz?

I too am having a similar problem with an "unlocked" LG Tu575 which I bought on e-bay. Cellular service and voice mail is OK; I cannot get out to the internet - even though I have created an account for AT&T and "activated" it. It still wants to go out to Telstra/Big Pond. I am also seeing a NextG screen as well. I cannot find a way to de-activate it as the default. I am getting frustrated. I have ready many threads here and on the LG forum and still can't get a fix to the problem. Is my phone really "unlocked"??
I am reluctant to call ATT as I fear they won't help since it is not their phone!
Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

I bought LG AT&T CU500 online. I am not getting any service in Bangalore,India. It displays "idea or vodafone" but cannot make any calls. I have unlocked it 2-3 times in different stores but still am not able to get service. I doubt this will work in India. Can anyone help me out?