How-to: Unlocking a CDMA Phone...

[WynterPhantom]

Originally Posted by Brad729

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.

[Go Leafs GO!!!]

oh i see well i was accualy thinking of getting an iphone from india next year if they have them and if they dont i'll try to get it here somewhere in canda or in the us and get it unlocked so i can use it with rogers but if i can't use it with rogers is there any other provider in canada bc that i could use the iphone and not telus?

we shold start a new thread for this eh.

[rsan77]

I have a sprint SPH A900 phone i bought off ebay and i didn't know it was an unlocked phone. I use sprint but when i called them and gave the ESN they said they couldn't activate it. How can i lock an unlocked sprint phone back with sprint??? Someone please help me out.

[Brad729]

Originally Posted by rsan77

I have a sprint SPH A900 phone i bought off ebay and i didn't know it was an unlocked phone. I use sprint but when i called them and gave the ESN they said they couldn't activate it. How can i lock an unlocked sprint phone back with sprint??? Someone please help me out.

Someone answered your question already in another thread. It sounds like your problem is not in the phone being locked/unlocked, but rather whoever owned the phone before you has either reported it lost, stolen, or didn't pay their Sprint bill, so the ESN is blacklisted and cannot be activated. Of course, the only way to find out for sure is to ask Sprint why they won't activate it, they should give you a reason.

[rsan77]

Well i thought about that too..... before i found out about locked or unlocked phones. When i called sprint it sounded like the ESN number wasn't in their system at all. They kept on asking me if i was sure it wasn't a prepaid phone.... and made me repeat the ESN number like 10 times. I got my bother to talk to sprint and they told him i might have a virgin phone or something. Also when i got the phone it was brand new... everything still in plastic with no finger prints or anything, the phone was in perfect condition. It looks too new to be a used phone and If it was a used phone and was lost or stolen then i'm sure they would have told me that when i called.... "Sorry we can't activate this phone because it has been reported lost or stolen". A few years ago i had lost my phone and the sprint representative told me that when i tried to active a phone my brother had found. Also when i press *2 to activate it like the manual said it trys to connect me to Cricket. Its a sprint phone..... all i want it to do is connect to sprint. WTF

[rsan77]

ok i just found out from the guy i bought it from on ebay that the phone i bought was set up for Cricket service. Is there still any way to get it on the sprint network?

[anthony]

I have a cingular LG F9100 i would like to use with a difference service provider i was told it can be only used with GSM like tmobile if so how can i get it unlocked and is there any other GSM besides tmobile i could us it with

[kmackin]

does sprint have pre paid? because i am trying to unlock it to some other carrier that does pre paid because i do not have the money to have it planned so please get back to me .

[Brad729]

Folks, the first post in this thread answered your questions. The answer is not going to change just because you got new Comcast Digital Voice (haha, I love that commercial; 'Sorry Roger, you tiger now!'). The point is, if you have a CDMA service you better buy a phone with their logo on it. The CDMA providers WILL NOT activate a prepaid phone or a phone from a different provider, so please stop asking!!!

If your question pertains to GSM phones, please find the appropriate forum for your provider from our main page... and then try our SEARCH feature to make sure someone else hasn't already asked (and answered) your same question.

Thread Closed!!!!!