by William from NOLA » Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:01 pm
I have had a number of cell phones over the years and love Blackberries the best. I just recently purchased a new Bold 9700. I also love to travel as many of you may have guessed. For that, I use an international SIM card, and in order to use that with my cell phone, the cell phone must be unlocked. (see 1 below for definition of unlocked)
Most of the time, you can bs your carrier into giving you the code to unlock the phone. But in a lot of instances, such as having the phone less than 6 months, they will not allow you to unlock it yet. There are a bunch of places online that charge to unlock your phone for you, BUT I JUST found a FREE site that will do this. Just go to
http://www.berrymods.com/ and register. Follow the directions they provide, and within a day or so, they will message you with the codes you need to unlock. I doubted it at first, but I can verify that they are legit.
If you are wondering what international SIM card I use:
http://acetelecomstore.com/ They offer a few choices. The best part about it is that the money you put on the account for the SIM card never expires. All others I've found online expire after 6 months or so. You are also given a 1-800 number for USA people to call toll free, but it charges .35 per minute from your account. Incoming texts to your number are free, but you are given a European number. My number is an Estonian number, which, for the life of me, I cannot find a free online service to text with. I would recommend asking for a UK SIM card. They are the easiest to text online from.
I know this sounds like spam, but I assure you it isn't :)
1. Unlocked -- When you buy a cell phone from a carrier, they program it to only work with that carrier's SIM cards and will not allow you to use another carrier's service in that phone. A SIM card is the smartchip thing they give you with your ID numbers on it. Some carriers don't use SIM cards, such as Sprint.
I have had a number of cell phones over the years and love Blackberries the best. I just recently purchased a new Bold 9700. I also love to travel as many of you may have guessed. For that, I use an international SIM card, and in order to use that with my cell phone, the cell phone must be unlocked. (see 1 below for definition of unlocked)
Most of the time, you can bs your carrier into giving you the code to unlock the phone. But in a lot of instances, such as having the phone less than 6 months, they will not allow you to unlock it yet. There are a bunch of places online that charge to unlock your phone for you, BUT I JUST found a FREE site that will do this. Just go to [url]http://www.berrymods.com/[/url] and register. Follow the directions they provide, and within a day or so, they will message you with the codes you need to unlock. I doubted it at first, but I can verify that they are legit.
If you are wondering what international SIM card I use: [url]http://acetelecomstore.com/[/url] They offer a few choices. The best part about it is that the money you put on the account for the SIM card never expires. All others I've found online expire after 6 months or so. You are also given a 1-800 number for USA people to call toll free, but it charges .35 per minute from your account. Incoming texts to your number are free, but you are given a European number. My number is an Estonian number, which, for the life of me, I cannot find a free online service to text with. I would recommend asking for a UK SIM card. They are the easiest to text online from.
I know this sounds like spam, but I assure you it isn't :)
1. Unlocked -- When you buy a cell phone from a carrier, they program it to only work with that carrier's SIM cards and will not allow you to use another carrier's service in that phone. A SIM card is the smartchip thing they give you with your ID numbers on it. Some carriers don't use SIM cards, such as Sprint.