Consumers can now save money by transferring their cell phones to new carriers without having to purchase a new cell phone thanks to the Library of Congress who has recently allowed cell phone users to unlock their GSM and iDen cell phones. Now the question is, "How to I unlock my cell phone?” [Discuss]Currently, only Cingular, T-Mobile and Nextel cell phones can be unlocked. Cingular and T-Mobile offers GMS cell phones (GSM Cell Phone Unlocking FAQ), while Nextel offers iDen cell phones. Sprint, Verizon and Alltel users are out of luck because these carriers use CDMA phones which have locks and have to be individually authenticated by their network. Even if you unlock a CDMA phone, if it isn't on the serial number list of the network you're bringing it to, it won't work. And the carriers won't add individual new serial numbers to their databases.
Even though Sprint, Verizon, and Alltel all sell Motorola V3m phones, they won't activate each other's V3m's. And although carriers individuals can "flash" CDMA phones with the software sets from other carriers, the carriers just will not add individual new serial numbers to their databases.
T-Mobile and Cingular
T-Mobile and Cingular customers can call customer service and request the unlocking code. They can state to customer service that they are going abroad and want to use a SIM card for a foreign carrier. Once your phone is unlocked and moved to a different network, the phone will have to be reprogrammed with the phone's data settings so you can access the Web and send and receive picture messages. T-Mobile users can get their settings at http://tmobileus.wdsglobal.com/phonefirst; Cingular users should call 611 and ask to have their MMS and WAP settings pushed to their phone number.Smart phones: T-Mobile MDA & Cingular 8125, 8525.
Owners of the the Cingular 8125 and 8525 GSM Pocket PC smart phones and T-Mobile MDA – can use another free tool, at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=240784 Nokia Phones
Nokia users of the Nokia 1100, 6230, 6820 or 7650, can use a free online calculator to figure out your unlock code. Visit http://nokiafree.org/forums/t64045/s.html for instructions to use the calculator at http://unlock.nokiafree.org/ to find the code. Most other cell phones will require software and/or cable to unlock the phone. Sony Ericsson phones, Blackberries, some Treos, some LG phones and HTC smart phones require special software and a special cable to unlocked with the pones. It will cost $15-60 for the cable and/or the license to unlock one phone. Some recent Samsung phones can be unlocked with a software-only process. Many newer cell phones either requires hardware modifications or can't be unlocked at all. iunlock.com charges $25 to unlock cell phones. The service works by mailing your phone to iunlock.com, they unlock it and mail back to you. There are a few gadgets on the market to unlock cell phones such as NsDongle for Samsung and the Smart Unlocker box for Motorola. This will cost you at least $200.
