can i use old verizon phone on cingular

I am with verizon now and i kinda have an older phone. i want to switch over to cingular pay as you go service. can i use my old cell phone? how can i tell - i have been getting conflicting answers from people. some say you need a phone with a sim card others say that is bull just to get you to buy a new phone. and someones else said that i have to get my phone unlocked.

I have a LG -TM510 and i am currently with verizon. they are too expensive but if i have to buy a new phone to go to cingular then it just might end up costing the same.

can anyone help me out with info? thanks!

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Hello, welcome to CPF! We get this question a lot, and there is a lot of confusion surrounding the whole subject. Let me clarify it for you here.

GSM phones use SIM cards, and CDMA phones do not. (iDEN phones use SIM cards too but that's a different kind of SIM card and a different story). You will not be able to use a Verizon phone on any carrier other than Verizon because it's a CDMA phone that is hard-wired to Verizon service (unless we're talking about a prepaid service that resells Verizon, they are probably the only ones who can activate a Verizon phone besides Verizon).

So, you want Cingular prepaid, huh? You will be able to take that Cingular SIM and put it in any other Cingular-branded phone, or any unlocked GSM phone, but if you use an unbranded, unlocked phone, you will have to configure the phone's settings before you will be able to use text or any data services like MediaNet. This can be tricky if your unlocked phone is not in the list of supported models on the Configurator web site.

If you go with an unlocked phone, you'll need the following link to setup your medianet and text messaging... hope this answers all your questions! Before I post the link, I want to mention that while it should work the same as a phone on contract, I can't say with 100% certainty that this device configurator is designed to work for Cingular's prepaid customers because I haven't heard of anyone using it to setup a prepaid phone. Good luck!

https://secure.mouse2mobile.com/clie...guredevice.asp

Sorry Verizon is CDMA and Cingular is GSM. Two totally different types of cell phone technology, which are not compatible.

For you to go to ANY other cell carrier, other than one that uses Verizon as their carrier, you will need to buy a new phone. Or when you sign up with another carrier, get their basic phone they offer with a 1 or 2 year contract.

Another option, would be to buy by an unlocked GSM phone on Ebay or Craig's List, which you could use with either T-Mobile or Cingular. This way you could try both Cingular and T-Mobile, using prepaid SIMs to see which service would work best for you in your area, and where you use the cell phone most often.

Also if you have your own phone, you are not forced to get a contract, but can go month to month. But you do give up the ability to do some thing if you bring your own phone to a carrier, like being able to upgrade your phone after a certian period of time, or get certain promotional plans, unless you are willing to go into a contract.

good morning, bear! looks like we posted at the same time! i was probably working on mine a little longer than you haha, i was bored and went into more detail than was probably necessary

Yup you just hit enter before I did! LOL!