Used to know someone in verzion who did all the time(hence the reason he's not working ther eanymore ) but it can be done

 

Just a note: As opposed to the EU, the US cellphone networks are PURPOSLY incompatible with each other - each carrier determines what protocol they will use and most try to make their networks "exclusive" so customers can't move from one carrier to another without at least getting a new phone.

In Japan, it is similar, but maybe even more convoluted! Here's a short description of the Japanese set-up: http://euc.jp/misc/cellphones.en.html

In most of the world the standard is GSM and any cellphone will work anywhere, pretty much. In some places like the US and Japan competition has dug in so deep that even phones that will technically work on more than one network are not ALLOWED to do so.

(In the US it was the FCC that dropped the ball by not setting a nationwide standard when we moved from the standardized analog systems to digital. They decided to let the companies decide what they wanted to use and we now have a very broken system instead of an integrated nationwide network that any cellphone can use.)

Right now the environment is like the very, very early days of landline telephony with separate, incompatible networks. Eventually it might sort itself out, but don't hold your breath. It was once all one set standard, now it isn't: The companies LIKE it this way.

 

I do But I don't need AM though

 

I have been there to help family members get new phones and such and it is almost always a pain.

the easiest carriers by far to work with are the ones that use sim cards, imo, just get the new phone and pop in the sim from your old phone and your done.

 

SIM cards are cool and all, since it holds alot of info, like your address book and everything, but what happens if your phone gets lost or stolen. I lost my PDA phone from Verizon, but I had an older verizon phone as a backup. All I had to do was get online and punch in the ESN to my old phone. Five minutes later, the PDA phone no longer worked and my old phone did. You kinda need the SIM card for GSM phones to work.

I will admit that the talk and standby times for GSM is way better than CDMA. GSM also has a lot more functions you can use.

 

Anybody know a reputable place to buy an unlocked phone from. (I don't trust eBay) My phone is about to die and Cingular won't sell me a new phone unless I "upgrade" to a new plan that costs 20$ more per month.

 

F cingular.......................

 

pinch a fit.

worked for me a about 4 years ago. my mom got ____ed that they would give me the cheap $50 one for free. she complained and told them how long we had been customers (since way before their name changed to t-mobile) they gave in.

now there customer service rocks. got me a free $300 phone from them now. and I am still on the cheapest plan they have, and they don't even advertise it at all anymore.

 

Cingular sucks, but let's be honest, ALL the cell phone companies suck. That's why they don't take your threats to switch to another company seriously.

 

lol thats funny...................... here wiblywobbly on the unlocked phone thing. www.mobilebee.com

 

all cell services suck.............. cingulars new voice mail is so ___ backwards it takes an ungodly amount of time to access your voicemail