I must preface I am new to this wonderful site, and probably will get pummeled for asking a perhaps obvious (and redundant) question, but I couldn't quite find the answer I was looking for? Is it as simple as purchasing an unlocked GSM phone and dropping in my SIM card and everything is cool? Why I ask is I was reading a opinion on epinions.com about a guy who purchased a PEBL phone. He said he inserted his SIM card, sat back and called Cingular and everything was good. Why did he need to call Cingular you think? Does an unlocked phone require additional steps to work after the SIM exchange? My contract is up in January and I am trying to decide whether or not to continue with the current contract (month-to-month) and purchase a different phone or extend my contract and take whatever Cingular has to offer. Again, I apologize if this is one of those "stupid questions." I thank everyone for their time and replies.
We try not to "pummel" people here, at least until you've been around for a while. An activated Cingular SIM should simply work in an unlocked GSM phone (US frequencies, of course). If I remember correctly, a prepaid SIM requires activation the first time you use it. That may be what the other poster was referring to. SW
There are very few things that one must pay attention to when using an unlocked phone. Frequencies supported: the best bet for GSM is a quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 phone, it'll work practically anywhere there's GSM Features needed: voice and text messaging will work right after you drop your SIM in, MMS and WAP will most likely require additional (sometimes manual) steps to configure, these depend on the actual phone model. Voicemail: some unlocked phones will have problems displaying the voicemail icon correctly, it varies by the phone make/model and market. Also, some phones won't be able to read the VM access number off the SIM and it'll have to be programmed manually. Otherwise there's no need to call Cingular. One thing I always do on my unlocked Nokias is I make sure I set the Confirm SIM service action to "Yes". For some reason Cingular SIM likes to send a message when first inserted into my phone and I don't like that, so I disallow it.
It is a very valid question and WELCOME to WA. Yes, it is that simple but (you knew there was "but" coming, I am sure). There are provider branded unlocked phones and there unbranded unlocked phones. Considering it is PEBL I am assuming it is either an unlocked and unbranded phone (oh btw, I had one an used it on Cingular-great phone) or a T-Mobile branded but unlocked phone. Why he called Cingular is that a non-Cingular (or any other GSM provider) branded phone will not have the proper settings for MMS & Media-Net and putting a Cingular SIM card will not help that. The person did not really have to call Cingular, all the settings are available on Cingular's website. In the case of the PEBL, I used the settings for V3 since Cingular never had the phone and thus had no settings for it. Hope I did not confuse you royally ....
Wow Guys! Thank you!! I expected maybe a reply or two in a few hours, but four in less than a half an hour, Incredible! Now that I have that issue cleared up (and not afraid of sounding stupid) I'll have to mull over my decision. Thanks again. :thumb: Alan
Good points. It should be said, for newcomers, that the 850 and 1900 MHz bands are all that are needed for voice calls in the US and Canada. SW
I thought we loved to pummel :loony: Welcome to Wireless Advisor, there's more than a handful of us that are "fanatics" usually when I'm at it for hours at a time I literally refresh "Active Topics" every 10 or so minutes praying for new posts to Pummel Furthermore Generally T-Mobile Native Network is always on 1900 mhz, very few areas where that's not true, but we all love to roam so it's not quite that easy.
Is it really that simple? (Part 2) I’m curious now. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to purchasing an unlocked GSM phone vs. extending one’s contract and getting a phone at a discount?
Re: Is it really that simple? (Part 2) The only "disadvantages" I can see to purchasing an unlocked, unbranded phone is that you will probably have to manually input the settings for mobile web and MMS and the phone will cost more than it will with a contract, but you aren't signing your life away to Cingular so that's usually worth it to more people.
Re: Is it really that simple? (Part 2) The only advantages to buying an unlocked phone is that you're not stuck with one provider at any point in time and you can get a phone that the providers haven't released yet, ie pebl's on Cingular, Krzr K1's on Tmobile, etc.
Re: Is it really that simple? (Part 2) if you are a "tinkerer" no difference... if you are "technolocically challenged" the carrier does not have to support in any way shape or form a phone that wasnt sold by them... that could have a large impact on the service and reliability of said device
