cingular sim card in a t mobile phone

[zubehor]

my cingular phone, the erricson t28 world, is falling apart and i need a new phone but none of the cingualr phones interest me. I was wondering if i could use my cingualr chip and put it in a t mobile phone. I know there's a problem with that and i think t mobile has some kind of a lock on their phones so that it won't accept cingualr chips, but does anyone know how to get around that so i can use my cingular chip in a new t mobile phone?

shannon

[714tmobile]

If you purchase a telephone from them directly, you *may* be able to persuade them to give you the unlock code... key word being *may* otherwise, it may be better to just buy an already-unlocked one from eBay. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[BizUser]

Assuming you don't already have a T-Mobile phone, you'll have to acquire one, and to acquire one, even if you get it for "free", you'll have to sign up for service - 1 or 2 year contract. If you are willing to do that, then you will now have solved the first part of the problem - get the T-Mobile phone.

As soon as you get the T-Mobile phone, you call them and ask them for the 'unlock code'. They should give it to you, at least, after 30 days (they have little reason not to - read on). Once you have the unlock code, you can unlock it, then pop in the Cingular SIM and - problem solved .... EXCEPT - you are now paying monthly fees to both T-Mobile and Cingular, which most people consider to be a disadvantage. If you stop paying T-Mobile, they'll invoke whatever contract cancellation fee is in your contract, and also bill you for the 'retail value' of the phone, which is probably several hundreds. If you stop paying Cingular, assuming you are already outside their 1- or 2-year contract, they will simply disconnect your service - which means your SIM stops working. So in essence, the best option would seem to be, move to T-Mobile. If you are still on a contract with Cingular, then you are stuck. Buy an unlocked phone, as the other poster said - but be ready to pay a big price - the 'real' price of a phone is pretty high!