I am looking into buying a refurbished unlocked cellphone. The description says that it works on the Verizon network and “all unlocked GSM companies worldwide!”
Well, what does THAT mean? Is Virgin and unlocked GSM company? How about Consumer Cellular? Sprint? T-Mobile? How would I find out if a company is an unlocked GSM company?
Can anyone out there shed some light on this?
Thanks!
There are two major standards for cell carries in the United States, CDMA and GSM. Overseas GSM predominates.
An unlocked GSM phone should work on any cell network that uses GSM.
Here’s a convenient Wikipedia list of cell carriers in the US, including which standard they use. Of the major carriers, Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. T-Mobile and AT&T use GSM.
Consumer Cellular seems to resell service it buys in bulk on AT&T’s network so presumably theirs is GSM as well.
It is only phones that are locked to SIM’s of the correct carrier.
There is no way for the GSM carrier to ban the use of unlocked phones.
The phone is locked by the phone reading and checking the carrier information from the sim. If it detects the carrier in the SIM is not matching, it doesn’t work .
Can you tell us the model of the phone?
If it works on the Verizon network, that would say it is a CDMA phone. I have never heard of a phone that is both a CDMA phone and a GSM phone combined in a single unit. Maybe I am just behind the times, but that just doesn’t sound right.
Never mind, I guess there is such a thing as a dual CDMA/GSM phone.
Sure.
The model is a blackberry. I don’t have the specific model number for you, but it looks like a late model blackberry that’s been refurbished (and unlocked). It is 3G, which means it’s not state-of-the-art, but that’s ok with me. I’m not a heavy cell phone user.
So it looks like this phone is for the US market. Can I use it regardless of what network I’m tied to with a financial contract?
I was reading about Consumer Cellular, which is fairly cheap ($10/month for 100 minutes or so) and they imply I can use my current phone if it is unlocked, or i can take my sim card out and put it into the phone of my choice. I don’t know where my sim card is (i know little about cell phones, as you can probably tell) so I just want to make sure that if i buy an unlocked phone, I can use it with any carrier.
And is “jailbroken” the same as “unlocked”?
No, “jailbreaking” (or “rooting”) means freeing the device from manufacturer/carrier constraints on the software you can run on the phone. “Unlocking” allows the phone to work on any carrier that is compatible with the phone hardware.
Another tidbit… GSM phones must use a SIM card. Some satellite phones may also use a SIM card.
CDMA phones in North America generally do not use SIM cards. (Some in Japan apparently did at one time.)
That is a good enough distinction to lead to the rule of thumb that all SIM card using cell phones operate on the GSM system.
An unlocked phone can be used with any service provider of your choosing that operates using a GSM network. So you can take your unlocked Blackberry and insert a SIM card from Consumer Cellular and it should work. If you want to change service providers to T-Mobile you just need to put in a new SIM card. But you cannot change to Verizon (which uses the CDMA standard) unless your phone specifically supports both standards like Alley Dweller linked to. Blackberry does make some dual band phones capable of use on CDMA and GSM networks.
Sure there is. Carriers can enforce a list of known valid IMEIs for phones, and only allow phones they sold in the list. I’m not aware of any company that actually uses the IMEI to block anything other than problem phones (such as those reported stolen), but the specs certainly allow for it.
Can you provide any more information about the device? I…uh…know a bit about Blackberries from that era.
I assume it has a keyboard. Probably an optical track pad (not the old jog ball, and not the new BB10 products with no nav device).
Does it say Bold? Curve?
Japan’s main networks Docomo & SoftBank actually do this. They will not sell you a simcard for an unlocked iphone bought outside Japan and will tell you it’s not possible, that only iPhone’s bought in Japan work on Japanese networks.
I even tried swapping in a simcard from a friends local iPhone, no dice they have actually locked it down to only IMEI’s that they sell. Luckily over here another company bMobile, will sell you a simcard for an unlocked iPhone, and it’s actually just a Docomo simcard, that bMobile resells.
I wasn’t blocked exactly, but I was forced into a more expensive plan by AT&T via IMEI. I had a non-smartphone data plan with an overseas smartphone that slipped below their radar. When I upgraded to a self-purchased domestic phone (but still not offered by AT&T), they nevertheless detected it and auto-“upgraded” me to the expensive smartphone plan.
Ok,
The last time I started this thread, the phone I wanted to buy was sold out.
So, i now have the phone that I want to buy and it’s back in stock.
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Unlocked GSM Phone - Black
This is the phone I want to buy…
Will it work in the Virgin Mobile network?
How would I get the phone hooked up to virgin’s network? Is this something I can do myself, or would I have to take it to a place that sells Virgin phones?
Any other info you need from me, please let me know. I don’t want to pay the money for a phone that is unusable on my cell phone company’s network.
Thank you!
SFP
Nope.
Virgin is a CDMA network, not GSM. IIRC, it runs entirely on Sprint’s towers.
I’m pretty sure the only phones that work on Virgin Mobile are the ones you buy from Virgin Mobile.
If you want to buy and use an unlocked GSM phone, I recommend looking into T-Mobile’s pre-paid plan. They have a few, but their “big seller” is one that is $30 a month for 100 talk minutes, and unlimited texts and data.
I carried that phone for a while… If I remember the numbering scheme, that was the first Blackberry slider. I actually carried both that, and the follow on slider. Lots of excitement about it, at the time. For it’s era, it was my favorite Blackberry device.
Oddly, I don’t seem to have any lying around. Just a bunch of old Motorola Q9h phones. But that’s another story…
According to Wikipedia, Sprint owns Virgin Mobile USA. Doesn’t mean they don’t use anyone else’s towers, but I suspect you’re right.
Thank you.
I have no idea what the difference between GSM and CDMA are, so i’m glad i asked. I really like blackberry products, and even if they seem to be going away, i’d still like to have one for my daily cell phone.
I have an HTC phone which is great if you have the fingers of an 8 year old girl. But for an adult human being, the buttons are so small and the screen so sensitive, i’ve managed to call people from my pocket without ever knowing the call was made…
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I occasionally hear “hello? Hello?” from my pants. Never a good thing in a business meeting.