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Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Dec 18, 2003, 12:04 PM

I am interested in buying a t616 on ebay for use on Rogers At&T in Canada.

I found one on ebay for a good price advertised as "unlocked". I wrote the seller asking if it was truly unlocked as he said is in sealed. This is the answer I got:

"The person I baught it from said it is unlocked. I do not want to open it! The buyer can open it and use it. When i baught it the phone was advertised unlocked so I will sell it the same way! I know that cingular is an american network so it's guaranteed in the states. When a phone is brandnew it should be unlocked! The only way it can be locked is if the service provider locks it. This phone has not been hooked up with any service provider yet."

So is this true or is he full of it?

tooki · Dec 18, 2003, 07:01 PM

The whole point of it is that cell providers buy phones in bulk and have them subsidy-locked at the factory (assuming they don't have completely proprietary software installed on them, as Sprint does).

tooki

Cellery · Dec 18, 2003, 07:46 PM

I just purchased a T616 from AT&T Wireless, and it was already locked fresh out of the box. I've been looking for a carrier with legit unlocked phones, but haven't found any. I've had service with Cingular, T-Mobile, and AT&T, and all the phones I've purchased have been locked from the get-go.

Mrjinglesusa · Dec 18, 2003, 07:56 PM

From reading some other forums around the 'net, I have found that "unlocked" phones means that they are not "locked" to a specific carrier and therefore can accept SIM cards from other carriers.

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Dec 18, 2003, 11:26 PM

Originally posted by Mrjinglesusa:
From reading some other forums around the 'net, I have found that "unlocked" phones means that they are not "locked" to a specific carrier and therefore can accept SIM cards from other carriers.

Well I know that

What I am asking is does Cingular really ship unlocked phones?

Captain Obvious · 01:50 AM

No US cell company sells unlocked phones. So if it is new and from a company here it is locked. T-Mobile and Cingular will unlock phones for customers but they have to have service with the company at that time the request goes theough. The process is easy but the phone has to be one they sold, with the company stamp on it, and the codes usually work only on that phone with their SIM card. The codes generated are ESN specific and some only work in conjunction with the exact SIM card of the customer.
Once it is unlocked then it will work with other carriers. If AT&T in Can is like here don't bother getting any phone that isnt both 850(900) and 1900.

I would not buy it from this guy. He does not know what he is talking about and it sounds like he is trying to pass off a phone that he thought was unlocked on someone else.

torifile · Dec 19, 2003, 09:12 AM

There are sites on the net that will generate an unlock code for you and then you'll be set. It's not a hard process and fairly risk-free. I'll see if I can find one for the t616.

wireframe · Dec 20, 2003, 08:04 AM

You should be able to get it unlocked, even online. My dad does that in his shop, but there are a few models out just now which either cost around �100 to unlock (the usual price is �10), or the phone is unlockable, but that's rare.

Have a look online if that particular phone can be unlocked, then go for it. You could probably find a dealer in your town that'd unlock it.

wireframe · Dec 20, 2003, 08:06 AM

here you go, i think they charge for it and there's a ton other sites which do it too, but least you know it can be done.

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/extras/un...p?ref=landmark

aaanorton · Dec 20, 2003, 10:53 AM

Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
No US cell company sells unlocked phones. So if it is new and from a company here it is locked. T-Mobile and Cingular will unlock phones for customers but they have to have service with the company at that time the request goes theough.

Cingular does NOT unlock phones anymore. While you may get lucky with some Cing office doing it, this is their new policy.
Check HowardForums marketplace for companies that offer unlocking service.

brachiator · Dec 24, 2003, 07:04 PM

Originally posted by aaanorton:
Cingular does NOT unlock phones anymore. While you may get lucky with some Cing office doing it, this is their new policy.
Check HowardForums marketplace for companies that offer unlocking service.

Yes, this has been my experience too. The excuse that I was offered was that since Cingular now has global roaming partners there is no longer any reason someone would need to unlock their phone so as to use it with a foreign carrier. I was able to get the unlock code from them on the strength of my 4 year record of customer loyalty, but it was made clear to me that it was an exception.

There are, however, vendors who will sell factory unlocked phones -- phones that were obtained directly from the factory, apparently, and without having been subsidy locked by aa service provider. I've bought good phones from Celluloco that seemed to indeed be unlocked, and I was able to pop in my Cingular SIM and away I went -- Although I did have a bit of a problem with voicemail icons, which Moto claimed was a known issue... strange, though, since it was the same model (v60i) that Cingular uses. So I guess the moral is that these factory unlocked phones may have compatibility issues.

I've also bought unlocked Voicesteam and other GSM phones on eBay, which worked fine, on US and Asian GSM networks.

I would keep searching on eBay for a guy who knows whether his phone is truly unlocked, though! The current guy gets high marks fr candor, but you really don't want to buy a pig in a poke.