How-to: Unlocking a CDMA Phone...

[motorazrs07]

my provider NTELOS tok a Verizon Wireless Razr and reporgrammed it with my NTELOS number. Is this not the norm?

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› See More: Unlocking a CDMA Phone...

[Brad729]

my provider NTELOS tok a Verizon Wireless Razr and reporgrammed it with my NTELOS number. Is this not the norm?

Nope, that is not the norm at all. The bigger CDMA providers like Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel won't reprogram another carrier's phone for their network. They often give excuses like, "It wouldn't work correctly on our network" or "that phone will roam all the time and give you poor reception". These statements are debatable but generally considered true, since each network operates on slightly different parameters and they might not have the correct programming for a model of phone they don't actually sell.

[n1ckel5]

Nope, that is not the norm at all. The bigger CDMA providers like Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel won't reprogram another carrier's phone for their network. They often give excuses like, "It wouldn't work correctly on our network" or "that phone will roam all the time and give you poor reception". These statements are debatable but generally considered true, since each network operates on slightly different parameters and they might not have the correct programming for a model of phone they don't actually sell.

This is really a pretty simple concept, and I think Brad has summed it up nicely. But for another visual, consider this.

You own a Canadian car, which is in kilometers. Then you move to the US, where no one uses km.

When you trade your car in, many places will not touch it or dock you value because your mileage is 'incompatible' with their customer base. Sure, the conversion for the guages can be done, but that dealer may not have the technology to do it, or they may decide it's not worth their time to perform that service.

My advice to all CDMA users is to forget the unlocking, unless you are a genius with programming and network formatting. But, I'd bet that anyone asking about unlocking one is not.

If you're looking for easily switched phones, go GSM.

[RowansMom]

So, I'm just learning about all of this (CDMA vs. GSM) and it's not something I would normally be even remotely interested in, except that my boyfriend has an extra Treo (Cingular) that he has given me. I really like all the features and would like to activate it, but I'm with Verizon. The Verizon guy I talked to said there was no way I could use it on the Verizon network. Is that true?

-dazed and confused

[PhotoJim]

That's true. Cingular uses GSM and Verizon uses CDMA. Completely and utterly incompatible.

[WynterPhantom]

CDMA phones technically can be unlocked but not in the same sense that people think about GSM and iDEN unlocking. Since CDMA phones do not use a SIM card, they are sort of "hardwired" to the provider that sells them. Therefore, they can only be unlocked by the provider with a special code that they absolutely will not give out over the phone. This contrasts how you might call Cingular and have them give you an unlock code so you can travel overseas and use your GSM phone with a foreign SIM card. GSM phones can usually be unlocked remotely, but CDMA phones require a bit of 'reprogramming' to unlock, and it's not as simple as calling your provider and getting a code over the phone.

Generally, CDMA phones are NOT considered unlockable because it is usually impractical to do so. Sprint, my provider, will not under any circumstances activate a non-Sprint phone, so an unlocked CDMA phone would be useless to you if you use Sprint. Even if you get an unlocked CDMA phone and by some chance are able to have it activated with your provider, many of the features will not work correctly unless someone with quite a bit of technical knowledge reprograms the phone to your provider's specifications.

So, you can see where this is a very confusing subject. Even if you can unlock your CDMA phone, who is going to activate it for you? I suggest you call your CDMA provider, whether it's Sprint, Verizon, or whoever, and ask them if they will activate an unlocked Treo. Don't be surprised if they either act like they don't know what you're talking about, or even laugh at you for asking. You may have to ask for a level-2 tech person before you even get an acknowledgement that CDMA unlocking is possible. Your best chance is with a prepaid service, as they generally do not care where the phone comes from as long as you are buying their minutes, but I would still suggest calling them and asking before you spend the money on a phone.

This is exactly what happened with me. I have Verizon and a v3m, and when I asked them about unlocking the phone, they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about and suggested I call Motorola and gave me their contact information and then went further and repeated the instructions to me like I'm some sort of moron and can't read the manual and gave me the directions on how to get the screen saver to work. But in the process told me there was no way that they would ever lock the phone and proceeded to blame it on me for apparently being stupid and not getting it to work and if that didn't work, its Motorola's fault. I wanted to slap him so hard he's Momma could feel it. So, I ordered the software that says it can unlock it for you and everything, and hopefully that'll work and from what I've read, it seems to work. Here's hoping, and I can say that I will NEVER buy a phone directly from them again. I shouldn't have done it in the first place.

Anyone here buy I think its called Mobile Tools to help correct this and does it work? If this question needs to be moved, just tell me and I'll do that.

BTW, I'm sorry if I got on a tangent and some of this doesn't belong here, but I just wanted to back you up in them basically laughing at you.

[Go Leafs GO!!!]

hey i'm in canada and i was with rogers and i bought out the plan and have my sony ericsson w600i but now i was thinking can i get it unlocked and use it with cingular in the us??

[Major-General]

A friend of mine who worked for USCC was helping a customer with the same model phone as mine when it experienced a glitch. They turned it on, and instead of the USCC software it was showing Verizon's, though some USCC features still worked, like EasyEdge when you went to Mobile web. They pulled the battery, popped it back in, and it was the usual USCC software again. Makes you think.

[Go Leafs GO!!!]

eh whats the difference b/e cdma and gsm phones and what is the iphone will i be able to use it in canada with rogers if i get it unlocked

[tavenger5]

CDMA and GSM are different formats. Think of it as the difference between a mac and a pc. They both have different hardware and software, and have slightly different ways of operating.

Rogers is actually and older TDMA and newer GSM network. iPhone will be a GSM phone, so it's possible that it could work on their network. I'm sure you're not the only one that will want to use an iPhone on Rogers.