are there dissadvantages? I know my wife had an unlocked RAZR a little while back and w/ her carier the phone wouldn't properly display if she had voice mails. Is this common?


I have cingular and am looking for an L7 SLVR

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-UNLOCKED-MOT...QQcmdZViewItem

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-UNLOCKED-MOT...QQcmdZViewItem

 

how do I ensure i'm buying a US phone so I can take advantage of all the features?

 

Um yea its hard just look for repubtable sellers on ebay that have a 100% feedback rating. Voicemail probably didn't display properly because it probably wasnt set up. Im not sure how to setup voicemail on unlocked phones.

 

For an unlocked phone, you need to set up the ip address, dns, pop, smtp, and all those things yourself. Otherwise, it won't work with your carrier.

I think you should write down the setting from your old phone and then type it into your new phone.

 

I don't think he woud need to do all that unless it was a smart-phone with internet.

As long as the network settings are correct, everything should work right. I would say go to a store or call up customer service for the correct network settings.

 

not sure if it really matters or not if it's a U.S. phone (since it's all made in China or mexico anyway).

I don't think there would be a difference in feature functionality whether it was locked or unlocked, becasue the only time this would matter to the phone is if it was locked and you put in a SIM from another service provider.

but if it's unlocked, the phone doesn't care what the service provider is and just acts like it was locked to whoever's SIM you put in.


If you were with Cingular, you should see if there are any SLVR's locked to Cingular...that way you can be sure it's a U.S. phone and supported by Cingular, and locked phones are usually slightly cheaper too.

 

all I could find were used ones cheaper that were locked. Ended up buying a new unlocked off ebay for a good price. We'll see how things go

 

I don't think you will have any problems with it if it's unlocked. But if so, I think that Cingular sells the slvr so they should know how to help if you have any problems.

 

I think you'll be OK. I purchased an unlocked L7 SLVR from ebay and it works great. I had to reconfigure the browser setting to get it to connect to the internet. Other than that, it's

 

"unlocked" simply means that the phone is no longer subsidised to that particular carrier that is sold under. the reason for locking the phone is to ensure the phone sold to the end user will not and can not be used on another carrier. by unlocking a phone, it means that you can use it on other [gsm] carriers. for example, the slvr l7 itunes from cingular, you can have it unlocked so it will take any given sim you put in, yet it will still retain all cingular branded stuffs (medianet, wap settings, etc). and iirc, cingular requires 2 years contract now. so buying a locked or unlocked phone wouldn't make much difference and getting it unlocked usually cost around $10.

 

Yep. However, the Cingular branded stuff only shows if it is the Cingular flashed ROM. There are a couple of sites out there to check out a few things on modifying phones and flashing ROMs, etc.

www.howardforums.com is a good one. They have a superthread for the L7, 183 pages long so it is a LONG read.

 

what you you mean by flashed ROM?

 

i think what he means is that if cingular sells a certain phone, for example a smartphone, then they can essentially customize the program/interface for their customers.

i had an unlocked blackberry 7100t, sold through t-mobile, but I used Cingular. It still had all the t-mobile icons on it even if I was using it with Cingular. This was a special case though, because there were physical as well as interal differences between the Cingular and T-mo 7100 models (I think the processors were different).

but most newer phones should not be this different because it is cheaper to manufacture one model that can be used on both, with the differences just programmable.


Let us know how the unlocked slvr works out for you.

 

for motorola phones there are three files that operates the phone:

FLASH - the bone firmware itself
FLEX - the pack that mandates what options and features are available.
LP - language packs

yes, hacking motorola phones are rather easy, you can enable/disable options in the phone by simply doing something call "SEEM editing."

 

Scott, pm Raheel, i'm sure he can answer your questions, and likely help you out.

 

will do Astro, thanks!

 

who is your carrier? I had the voicemail issue with my GF's SLVR, a easy SEEM edit that I found on Howard Forums solved the issue

 

I have an unlocked phone I use for my wife, the Motorola Pebl....It's got a lot more features than the locked phone, but it is annoying with the voicemail. It always shows her the little envelope saying she has voicemail even when she doesn't have any, and when she does delete any voicemail she does have, it sends her a text message (that I end up having to pay for because she doesn't have a text messaging plan on her phone) with a bunch of letters and numbers in the message.Cingular knows what kind of phone we are using and their possible solutions did not help us at all, then again I didn't expect it to..

 

just make sure its quad band (850mhz and 1900mhz YOU NEED THESE), everything else can be set up to work properly.

mms settings, internet settings...

these are the internet settings

Name: Cingular
Homepage: http://device.home
Gateway IP 1: 066.209.011.061
Port 1: 9201
Domain 1:
Service Type 1: WAP
Gateway IP 2: 000.000.000.000
Port 2: 0
Domain 2:
Service Type2: WAP
DNS1: 000.000.000.000
DNS 2: 000.000.000.000
Timeout: 10 minutes
CSD No1: +14152441012 <this might be different depending on your area, this line isnt really even necessary>
User Name 1: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1
Speed (Bps) 1: 9600
Line Type 1: ISDN
CSD No.2:
User Name 2:
Password 2:
Speed (Bps) 2: 9600
Line Type 2: ISDN
GPRS APN: wap.cingular
User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

 

i know one thing for sure, unlocked phones u cant get insuredd, which is a big thing if ur buying a smart phone

 

Thank god I have a dumb phone

 

You guys need to look on howardforums.com for the envelope/text message issues when you get a voicemail. Its a quick software fix, not really a big deal.

 

sort of a bump for this thread:

I purchased a nokia phone on Ebay a little while back and swaped my SIM card into it.

Since I've been using it I've noticed quite poor service.

Should I definately purchase a new phone?

 

i don't think it had anything to do with the unlocking.

For example, let's say you are on T-mobile and buy an unlocked Cingular phone. That phone may get bad reception whether it was under T-mobile or Cingular, and if T-mobile sells the same phone, it may have the same reception problems.

It may not even be the service, but just poor sound quality from the speaker of that particular phone.

Or it may just be that the phone is not optimized for that particular network or service...for example when I was on Cingular and got an unlocked blackberry 7100t ('t' for t-mobile) on ebay, the seller told me it was "compatible" with Cingular, but didn't tell me that only the voice and text messaging was "compatible". The BB data service was not.

most phones don't have difference to that extent, but it's possible. I would try to stick with phones specific to my service if possible (whether new or used). ONe advantage is that it's cheaper than unlocked devices, and another is that it's guaranteed to work on that service.

But when certain models are released only to one particular brand, then i guess you have no chioce but to go for the unlocked model.

 

In my experience, I wouldn't recommend it. I've had Samsung D500 imported from South Korea which was capable with T-mobile brand. It worked fine at times and def has more features than other phones offered by T-mobile but reception was horrible at times. I mean I could literally sit next to another Samsung-T-mobile cellphone user and see his had more reception bars than I do. Then again I'm sure this could easily be result of which area you are in. I was in atlanta, GA if that helps.

If you are into having one of 'unique' phones that not many of your friends have, go w/ unlocked phones.

 

i bought a sony ericsson k750i off ebay and that phone isnt even sold in the US, i believe the phone was from france, anyways i didnt have any issues using it with cingular, but i couldnt figure out how to get the internet to work. i even copied all the same settings that my friend had in his razr

 

mizouse, get setttings from hofo and you'll be good to go.

I have had at leat 15 unlocked phones over the years, and would never go to a providers proprietary locked down systems ever.

no downsides, a zillion upsides to unlocked phones IMO.

 

As a software product manager for a wireless handset manufacturer, I can say that it depends on who the device was originally built for and who you plan on using it with.

In some cases, it is as simple as chaning some of the network/PRI settings. In others, it is more drastic as there are customizations in software specific to the intended operator's network that the end user may not have the ability to change, and could impact functionality.

 

you had problem with d500 becasue it is tri-band, and does not make use of tmobile's 850 frequency. my sister had the exact same phone and had the same problem, yet she now has an unlocked lg chocolate phone, which seems to be another triband... and she complains again. I guess she never learns

 

i hardly buy phones from cell phone providers. we are so slow with technology. most of my phones are factory unlocked. the easiest way to get your settings from your provider is to call them and have them send it to you via SMS. when you receive the message, view it and it will ask you to save the settings. i'm not sure it will work on all phone brands but it has worked on my nokias and siemens on both cingular and t-mobile networks.

disadvantages: you pay for features on the phone that may not work here such us video calls, 3G, walkie talkie, etc. as yunginTL said, you can't get them insured. finally, in my case i have the N80 internet edition phone. i want to get the myFaves plan. well, you have to have a myFaves compatible phone. so as a disadvantage, i can't get certain rate plans because of my unlocked phone.