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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
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    The Woodlands, Tx
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    5,974

    My wife found a niche

    You know, I am always trying to find a new way or idea that other people arent doing. Today, we unlocked her phone. It was locked to Cingular, we can now use it at AT&T or T-Mobile. She ordered this phone off Ebay. We couldnt find anyone in all of Houston that could unlock it, they said you cant, that it was impossible. Well....we did. And I think I found a new idea for business

    The reason I post this, is there's a lot of people here with cell phones, and I wonder if there is indeed a market for it. I can easily get everything I need to do almost all phones.. what do you think? Read on..

    AT&T, Cingular, and T-Mobile (and a few others) use the same type simm card. We tried a friends AT&T card, "Invalid Sim". We tried another frineds T-Mobile sim card, same thing. The only thing that worked was a Cingular sim card. AFter unlocking, the others work also.

    This is like so majorly kewl. We can use the simms from 3 major networks in our phone now....actually any network that uses the same sim type. I already added the service to my local computer business site. We'll see how it goes. Here's what I can currently unlock below.

    Phone Brands::
    Sony Ericsson

    Phone Models::

    T230 R2A007 R3A003 R4A008
    T300 R1D011
    T310 R1G001 R3B003
    T39 R4A008
    T610 R1A052 R1A081 R1L013 R3C002
    R3C004 R4C003 R6B004
    T616 R1B027
    T630 R4C003
    T68i R2B025 R8A004 R8A015
    R520M R4A008
    T100 R5A000 R8D000
    T200 R7A006
    Z600 R5B001
    T65 R6A006

    If you search ebay for cell phones, you'll find the unlocked ones sale for quite a bit more....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    SW FL
    Posts
    88
    I unlocked my nokia 3650 by downloading a program that generates an unlock code. Entered it in presto unlocked. Amazing what you can find on the internet. =)
    http://www.elishac.com Elisha Cuthbert Gallery

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
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    The Woodlands, Tx
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    Yeah Nokia only requires codes. Sony phones and most others requires expensive cables AND codes. But you know what, I do need that Nokia code generator. Still have it?

  4. #4
    I got my siemens phone off of ebay unlocked..... even though its unlocked, you don't get the internet features and such like if you had one that was just catered to your service.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
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    Earth
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    2,533
    Is their any legal issues involved in that?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    The Woodlands, Tx
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    Originally posted by SpiritAu
    Is their any legal issues involved in that?
    No. It's your phone and you can do whatever you want with it. ABout the only illegal thing is cloning. A phone can be cloned to steal another persons services, but that's a big nono. It's not very effective though since whichever phone that's closer to a tower is the one that's going to have the service. They cant both run at the same time. I tried that with a couple of my cingular phones once. Both phones would ring if the number was called, but only one could be used at a time. Depending on which got the signal the strongest (who was closer to tower), one would have service and the other wouldnt.

    But other than that, you can do just about anything you want.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
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    The Woodlands, Tx
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    Well my wife just brought up an idea. For those who travel from US to Europe a lot, you can have a sim card for your US location and a sim card for your European location, and only have to use one phone. It's cheaper than paying roaming charges..

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    SW FL
    Posts
    88
    a quick search of my history found it.

    http://www.btinternet.com/~unlocksmith/guide4.html

    They say you get 5 tries or the phone locks up completely. Kinda scary mine unlocked with first code tho.
    http://www.elishac.com Elisha Cuthbert Gallery

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    no
    Posts
    558
    I dont know about the legal issues
    But I think it is a big market

  10. #10
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    Dec 2000
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    The Woodlands, Tx
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    Been searching since you asked that. The only thing illegal I can find is changing the IME# (cloning), unless both phones are yours.

  11. #11
    It may be a market, but its not applicable to the whole world, I think. In most countries, you can normally use (GSM 1800/900, NOT 1900) SIMs and change whenever and as many times as you want. Simple as that.

    Of course, you have got a market in USA and Canada.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    I'm sure there could be legal issues. Anything that's this good for the consumer, is generally illegal somewhere.
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  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Fairfax, Virginia
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    6,834
    What does 'unlocking' your phone mean?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Chandler, Arizona
    Posts
    2,564
    Originally posted by SniperDevil
    What does 'unlocking' your phone mean?
    Basically an unlocked cingular phone (like he said) will work on Nextel if you have a Nextel Contract..
    -Robert Norton
    www.SophMedia.com

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    paradise
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    6,220
    There are plenty of mobile hacks......dont remember the site cos I stopped using mobile years back. I think it was mobile.box.ck or something like that.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
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    Originally posted by interactive
    Basically an unlocked cingular phone (like he said) will work on Nextel if you have a Nextel Contract..
    Actually, not Nextel as they have their own system. Their sims are a little bigger too. The only major ones here that are inter-changeable are Cingular, T-Mobile, some Verizon, and AT&T. Those are the big ones here outside of Nextel and Verizon.

    Some sims of Verizon and Nextel are inter-changeable.

    I will explain better. You buy a fancy dancy $300 phone from Cingular along with their service. At the end of the contract, you want to goto T-Mobile instead of sticking with Cingular. Well guess what, you gotta buy a new phone because T-Mobile cant take out Cingular's lock.

    That's when you lookup someone like me (right now I can only do ericcson because that's the only thing I have equipment for thus far). I remove the Cingular lock from your fancy dancy $300 phone. You get a free cheapie from T-Mobile with your signup, take it's sim card and slip into your good phone. Since the phone is unlocked, the sim card works. Once I learn the correct ID's, I can also apply the network locks on the phones. Like I could remove the Cingular lock, and apply a T-Mobile lock, which allows you to use more of their network, such as mobile internet among other things.

    I can understand someone here asking what it is, but when I called around and talked to techs at about 30 local cell phone stores, they had no clue what I was talking about. The ones who finally understood what I was wanting, they said it couldnt be done. Well, for all their "cocky know-it-all smarter-than-thou attitudes", I proved them wrong.. A few, very few, knew exactly what I was talking about, but didnt know anyone who could do it. It was one of those cases where if you want it done, and done right, you have to do it yourself. And I stumbled onto a nice little money making niche in doing so..

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,739
    well i think its a good idea, you should see the amount of people on the sunday markets here doing it.


    they charge £5 and bam its done in front of your eye's using a laptop and a wire normaly


    i would say go for it try doing the local flea market, get a stand take the laptop and charge whatever you think people will pay and make sure you get a bit of a crowd when you do one so they can see its safe.....

  18. #18
    I was charged 15£ for my phone to unlock it from Orange so that I could use T - Mobile

    EDIT: From a Mobile store too, not a Market
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Albany, New York
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    3,026
    Originally posted by Webdude
    No. It's your phone and you can do whatever you want with it. ABout the only illegal thing is cloning. A phone can be cloned to steal another persons services, but that's a big nono. It's not very effective though since whichever phone that's closer to a tower is the one that's going to have the service. They cant both run at the same time. I tried that with a couple of my cingular phones once. Both phones would ring if the number was called, but only one could be used at a time. Depending on which got the signal the strongest (who was closer to tower), one would have service and the other wouldnt.

    But other than that, you can do just about anything you want.

    My friend lost his phone and got a new one. After he found his phone and they both would ring also. Whoever answered first got the call though. Not strongest signal. Upstate NY here

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    329
    this is pretty old news to my knowledge, I know a person who can unlock any phone for a fiver ...

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Nova Scotia, Canada
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    4,128
    Originally posted by Webdude
    Well my wife just brought up an idea. For those who travel from US to Europe a lot, you can have a sim card for your US location and a sim card for your European location, and only have to use one phone. It's cheaper than paying roaming charges..
    Most European phones are slightly different to their North American counterparts.

    For example, I have a siemens cellphone in Canada, and thought i could just swap sim card's when I went over home to Ireland, but it doesn't work that way. I can't remember exactly, but I think they are differently ridged, or slightly different in size.

    I now have the same model of phone, both in Dublin, and NS, but they cannot share sim card's.. if I switch the card's around, they don't work.

    I'm not sure if it's a siemens issue, or a general act done by the companies, to ensure channel-hoppers have to buy two phones, or go tri-band (?)

    Simon
    EIRCA Ltd, home of The Genius Network™.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    329
    yeh actually eurpean and american phones are different running on 1800Hz and 900Hz something like that. But the again, a lot of the new phones coming out are tri-band meanding they can be used internationally. But these are the newest ones of course.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Reading, England
    Posts
    4,240
    Pretty much every phone shop in the UK will unlock a phone for you charging about £10. I got a phone off Ebay which was unlocked, was oringinally on T-Mobile. Then I could just put my old sim card in and was up and running straight away.
    Steve

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    West Yorkshire
    Posts
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    A friend of mine runs a succesful unlocking company on the internet. He has even quit a full time job and survives very well on just unlocking.

    I am not sure how long this will last though as providers (As far as I know) are going to be selling phones without the SP locks on soon because of how easy it is to unlock a phone.

    Unlocking is not illegal but changing the IMEI number or unblocking a blocked phone is illegal.

    On Nokia phones you can do this with a code (Up to 5 attempts) and then you need to use a cable to unlock it after it fails 5 times.

    Software should unlock all DCT3 and DCT4 phones.
    -- Matthew

  25. #25
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    Dec 2000
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    Originally posted by IHSL
    I'm not sure if it's a siemens issue, or a general act done by the companies, to ensure channel-hoppers have to buy two phones, or go tri-band (?)
    Yeah, I forgot to mention that. In order for someone to do that, the phone would have to be tri-band

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