Sim Cards

RE: [spiers] Sim Cards

I have several friends who have unlocked their phones and successfully
used them with new sim cards. The only bad experience I had over there
was one time I tried to unlock an AT&T cell phone (before they became
part of Cingular) and they said it was impossible to truly unlock AT&T
carrier phones. Other than that, I've never heard of any other issues
at all.

If your phone doesn't work there, then the first thing that comes to
mind that I would ask is whether the phone you used is a tri-band phone
(supports 900/1800/1900 MHz bands). If the phone doesn't support the
band of the country then it won't work regardless of whether it's
unlocked.


So, hopefully there's a cell phone expert out there in our group who
can give their definitive two cents on the matter.

It's no fun to find out (when you're already in your destination) that
something won't work. By the way, the time I brought my AT&T phone to
China and couldn't get it unlocked I ended up buying a second hand
phone for convenience. As many I'm sure know, cell phones (even or
especially used phones) are more expensive over there than they are
here due to the nature of the cost structure differences for phone and
service. Because of the differences in price, you would be better off
buying a used phone here in the US (in other words, you can find a good
quality used phone very cheap here). The used phone I bought over
there had problems and I didn't have much recourse with the vendor I
purchased the phone from. All in all, it ended up being more
troublesome than a convenience. Therefore, the next time I just
brought a nice working phone with me from the US and unlocked it when I
got there. Problem solved.

Victor


--- Lily Yuan wrote:

> I paid to unlock my phone, and then tried to use the phone in China
> with a new
> sim card. NO, it didn't work. The sim card worked in my Chinese
> friend's
> cellphone. I think the American wireless phone companies must have
> put a
> special code in the phones so that you can't just switch out a sim
> card to use
> the phone....
> Lily
>
> --- LINDA HALL wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > I just returned from 3 weeks in China and tried to get a new sim
> card to cut
> > phone expences while there. The store put one in and it was locked
> and
> > needed a password to unlock it. So I couldnt do it.
> > So checkout Skype, it works great, and sound it great.
> >
> > Linda Hall
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Compete on Design!
> >
> > www.johnspiers.com

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