SOUTH U.S. -- SunCom SIM Card on AT&T Wireless?

[sakers70]

I've got a dilemma. I just sold my old cell phone which is a Nokia 3650 to a buyer on EBay. However, I didn't remember until I checked the battery and SIM that even though the phone is from AT&T, the SIM card is from SunCom. I originally had AT&T but was switced to SunCom about a year into my contract. I didn't make the change, AT&T did. I had to bring the phone in and they swapped out the SIM card.

The buyer wants to be able to use this phone with their AT&T service but I need to find out if this SIM card will work with AT&T first. So far I haven't been able to find any answers anywhere else. Not sure if the buyer already has an AT&T SIM card with their present phone or not. Please help! Thanks. I've notified the buyer and I'm hanging on to the phone until I get this resolved and hopefully they'll still want it, otherwise I'm out the shipping costs. My fault...

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by sakers70

I've got a dilemma. I just sold my old cell phone which is a Nokia 3650 to a buyer on EBay. However, I didn't remember until I checked the battery and SIM that even though the phone is from AT&T, the SIM card is from SunCom. I originally had AT&T but was switced to SunCom about a year into my contract. I didn't make the change, AT&T did. I had to bring the phone in and they swapped out the SIM card.

The buyer wants to be able to use this phone with their AT&T service but I need to find out if this SIM card will work with AT&T first. So far I haven't been able to find any answers anywhere else. Not sure if the buyer already has an AT&T SIM card with their present phone or not. Please help! Thanks. I've notified the buyer and I'm hanging on to the phone until I get this resolved and hopefully they'll still want it, otherwise I'm out the shipping costs. My fault...

A GSM phone (SunCom, AT&T etc.) is sold without the SIM card. The SIM card that you have contains all your account information including your phone number, it needs to remain with you, so you can use it in your next phone. If you have terminated that account then the SIM card is of no use to anyone.

As long as the phone is AT&T or unlocked the buyer will be the one to get a SIM card for it, under no circumstances should he/she expect to get a SIM card with it.

Hope that makes sense.

BTW, welcome to WA.

[sakers70]

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. I had terminated that service long ago but I'm still using the same number. Even though I had cleaned off all of my contacts, etc. it would still have the same number attached. I'll let the buyer know.

[efparri]

Originally Posted by sakers70

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. I had terminated that service long ago but I'm still using the same number. Even though I had cleaned off all of my contacts, etc. it would still have the same number attached. I'll let the buyer know.

Without a SIM card, the phone would have no number at all. If the phone was the one you used with AT&T Wireless, they unlocked it so that you could use the same phone with SunCom. The phone will accept any SIM card. Being a Nokia 3650, it only has the following bands GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900, which would limit its usefulness on AT&T Mobility.

[Camilla]

I just sold nokia 3650 which originally had att wireless sim card. new owner says new att sim card doesn't work with it. ATT says new att sim works with nokia 3650. do you know anything about this? I need to know whether to reimburse buyer. would never sell a phone that doesn't work, but just don't know. Do you? Thanks!

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by Camilla

I just sold nokia 3650 which originally had att wireless sim card. new owner says new att sim card doesn't work with it. ATT says new att sim works with nokia 3650. do you know anything about this? I need to know whether to reimburse buyer. would never sell a phone that doesn't work, but just don't know. Do you? Thanks!

If the person you sold it to has tried to put a current AT&T SIM card and it doesn't work, it sounds like the 3650 is locked to the old AT&T Wireless, which means it won't work with the new AT&T SIM cards.

Despite the similarity in name, they are not the same company (as far as the phones are concerned). This phone came out with AT&T Wireless long before Cingular acquired them, which is why the phone is locked. This was/is a common practice among GSM carriers to keep people from taking their phones to a rival carrier.

The 3650 could work with AT&T as long as it's unlocked, which may come at a cost to do. So it's up to you as to whether you want to reimburse the buyer for the phone not working properly.