Jason Bleazard wrote:
> On Wed, July 5, 2006 11:28 pm, Bill Pitz said:
>> not accept any other provider's SIM cards. There are unlocking services
>> and related things floating around on the web, but they are questionable.
>
> I did some reading last night and ran across the same thing. From what I saw
> of unlocking, it appears to involve opening the phone and re-flashing the
> firmware. Sounds like a good way to brick the phone to me.
Hmm, maybe back in the day, but not so much anymore. On my Motorola
V551, the phone asks for an "unlock code" as soon as a "foreign" SIM is
inserted. Entering the correct code unlocks the phone. Cingular gave
me the code when I whined at them about needing coverage in West Africa..
>> Some providers (not sure about all of them) will actually give you the
>> unlock code if you have a decent reason.
>
> I'm guessing Primus won't be very helpful. They have extensive roaming
> agreements in the US. They're the ones who collect the $1.00 per minute of
> roaming charges, even after they pay the US networks that's gotta translate to
> extra profit for them. The odds are quite small that they'll be very
> interested in helping me figure out how to avoid paying them money.
Precisely why you need to lie. Tell them you are traveling to Africa
and you have researched and found that the only way you will be able to
get your phone to work is by using prepaid SIM cards. It's worked for
me and everyone I know who has tried it in the U.S. I have a hard time
believing that Canadian carriers can be *that* much different.
>> The big two nationwide are Verizon and Cingular. You should know that
>> Verizon is CDMA-based (no SIM cards) and Cingular is GSM-based (SIM
>> cards). CDMA phones will not work on a GSM network and vice versa.
>
> A-ha! That's very good to know, thanks. I also remembered T-Mobile, I'll
> have to see what they use. It's been too long since I lived in the states,
> none of those companies even existed in 1997 (at least not in Utah). I had
> assumed it was like up here, where all of the major cell companies offer every
> kind of network service.
T-Mobile is also GSM. Used to ride piggyback on Cingular, but they have
been building out their own infrastructure.
Cingular is the conglomerate of Cellular One, AT&T Wireless, and all of
the old "Bell" cell carriers (BellSouth DCS, PacBell PCS, etc.).
Verizon is the result of GTE merging with some other carriers whose
names I can't remember at the moment. To make matters worse, there used
to also be a third standard, TDMA, which was used primarily by AT&T
Wireless before they rolled out their GSM network. And, of course,
there was analog before that. Most other countries are lightyears ahead
of us in terms of cellular capabilities because they learned from our
mistakes and started right out with GSM, so all of the phones are
compatible and can roam onto any network.
> Yep, our current Ericsson T610s are GSM phones. I Googled Norah's old Nokia
> 6185, and it turns out it's a CDMA phone. It's just been sitting idle on a
> shelf for the past two years, for no reason other than I keep forgetting to
> give it away. I'm thinking I'll charge it up and bring it along. Between the
> two of them, I should be able to figure something out. I think once we get
Call Verizon now and ask them if you can use your CDMA phone with
prepaid service. Should be no sweat at all with them. You just read
them the EIN (IIRC) number from underneath the battery and they register
you up on their system.
> Makes me wonder when the phone system is going to get with the times and come
> up with a floating nationwide area code where the long distance is figured on
> where your cell phone actually is at the moment, rather than where you bought
> it.
Probably never. "Long distance" is going to go away before we ever get
to that point. It's already happening. Once we get rid of long
distance, area codes will no longer matter. Everyone will just have a
"phone number" that's 10 digits. You already can't tell what city a
number is in or what provider serves it by the prefix like you used to
be able to, since numbers are now portable. And, of course, you can
sign up for Vonage or one of the other VoIP phone services and ask them
for a phone number in any area that they support.
-Bill
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