Help: Unlocked phone with US Cellular?

My current service provider is US Ceullular. I am unhappy with the phones they offer and want to purchase a Nokia. Can I get an unlocked phone or will there be a problem.

Thanks

US Cellular is a CDMA provider, is that correct? This means the phone does not have a SIM card to swap into another "unlocked" phone. CDMA phones are instead activated through your carrier by the ESN (electronic serial number), and they usually maintain a list of ESNs that are okay to be activated on their network, which does not include other carriers' ESNs.

What that means is, they probably will not activate a non US Cellular phone, but you'd have to call them and ask to find out for sure. Most CDMA carriers, at least in the USA, say other carriers' phones will have problems on their network because it thinks it's roaming all the time. Sorry I don't know much about US Cellular, they're nowhere around where I live, in fact I had to guess half a dozen zip codes to look at their plans before I found a major US city they provide service in.

That's just how US CDMA carriers are in general, hope this helps you figure it out.

CDMA carriers usually "frown" on the idea of activating a phone that is normally not carried by them.

Just like what Brad said...but also I was talking with someone I know from Verizon a while back and he said that it is a very lengthy process to program a phone in different regions, e.g. using a Verizon phone on a IT&E network that's based in the South Pacific. I can't really say that he's BSing because he is a techie, so I don't know. Is that true?

What if I get the unlocked razor that is carried by US Cellular. Will they have a problem with that and will it work?

I've actually been on the phone with US Cellular because I wanted to confirm a few things before I replied to your post. They are a CDMA provider, which goes back to my first post in this thread; as a rule of thumb, they do not activate other carriers' phones. CDMA phones don't have a SIM card and the only way to activate the phone is to call them and give them the serial number.

When you hear about unlocked phones they are usually talking about GSM phones. When you hear someone talk about an unlocked CDMA phone, they mean to say the phone has been tampered with, the software that operates the phone has been altered and whatever carrier you ask to activate it for you is likely to give you a hard time. Sorry, you're stuck with what they offer until they eventually combine the technologies into WCDMA, a long way down the road.

They do not activate phones unless it is a branded USC phone.