Anyone know anything about unlocking phones?

[Shellie]

So I have a GREAT deal through Nextel with work. I love the service, but I HATE their phones. I know you can unlock phones that are intended for one service to work on another. But can you unlock a phone to work on the Nextel service? I've tried looking up info on it and all I can find is a lawsuit where Sprint/Nextel has agreed to unlock their phones for people to use on other networks when they switch service.


Any help here?

[Julius Seeker]

I do believe that Sprint is a CDMA only provider at the moment. As far as I know, there is no way to unlock CDMA phones.

[Tessian]

I think it depends if they use that removable chip or not. AT&T & Teen Mobile phones have the little card that's got all your info on it and you just swap it into a new phone to switch. Verizon/Sprint does not do this and therefore you can't switch phones without their help.

[Shellie]

Well, I have a SIM card, but the problem is the only phones by default that work on the Nextel network are Nextel phones. I know you can unlock Verizon phones to work on say the TMobile network, but I dont think you can do the same for other phones to work on the Nextel network.

[Flip]

Well, I have a SIM card, but the problem is the only phones by default that work on the Nextel network are Nextel phones. I know you can unlock Verizon phones to work on say the TMobile network, but I dont think you can do the same for other phones to work on the Nextel network.

Tess is confused. I get what you are saying, i know people who bought iPhones, unlocked them, and now use them on a non AT&T network, but the details of how to do such a thing, which networks you can do it on and what phones have this ability are also unknown to me.

So... i have nothing to contribute, but just thought i would mention that i know what you are talking about and am interested in it world, too.

[Julius Seeker]

I think it depends if they use that removable chip or not. AT&T & Teen Mobile phones have the little card that's got all your info on it and you just swap it into a new phone to switch. Verizon/Sprint does not do this and therefore you can't switch phones without their help.

Those are sim cards which are used for GSM phones. Both T-Mobile and AT&T are on GSM networks. When a GSM phone is bought it is usually locked onto a specific network, and therefore only sim cards from that network will work in them. When they are unlocked any sim card will work.

[Imakeholesinu]

I think it depends if they use that removable chip or not. AT&T & Teen Mobile phones have the little card that's got all your info on it and you just swap it into a new phone to switch. Verizon/Sprint does not do this and therefore you can't switch phones without their help.

Those are sim cards which are used for GSM phones. Both T-Mobile and AT&T are on GSM networks. When a GSM phone is bought it is usually locked onto a specific network, and therefore only sim cards from that network will work in them. When they are unlocked any sim card will work.

Though Verizon as of May 08, will unlock any approved device onto their network with/without SIM card since they are rolling out LTE and 4G.

It might be possible to buy an unlocked phone from a CDMA carrier (Like Verizon or Sprint) and have Nextel subscribe it to their network if their policy allows this to happen. I would check with Nextel about 3rd party devices and activating them on their network. You may not receive all of the features on an unlocked device (MMS, Data, E-mail, Push-To-Talk).