How can I unlock an ATT 8260?

[cchen]

I have ATT service right now with my 8260 and I wanna switch to cingular in the near future. Is there any way to change the carrier on my 8260 to accept cingular?

 

[SackOfAllTrades]

i don't think it can work. att is on a tdma network and cingular is on gsm

 

[cchen]

Ya, but cingular uses the 8260 also and i thought that the 8260 is tdma only

 

[SackOfAllTrades]

i thought cingular uses the 8290?

 

[Blundar]

cingular uses both GSM and TDMA depending on what part of the country you are in. Remember, cingular was formed by a huge conglomeration of companies - among them Bellsouth, Ameritech, .... Here in the Midwest I know they use TDMA, but ...

As for changing it. Pretty much forget it.
ATT (and Cingular) lock the SOC (? Subscriber Operator Code) that determines which system the phone will be a part of. You can't program this from the back door programming modes. Look around on the web for these ... I don't remember off the top of my head. The codes are fairly universal for 5165, 6161, 3360, 8260, 8860.

A lot of the 8860s around here were totally unlocked. You might luck out. If your SOC is not locked then it's all good.

To unlock the SOC you need a programming cable, software that is not publically available and expertise not publically available. The 8260 is a pain in the ass to program aparantly because it has no data port...

Good luck, and post here + elsewhere if you manage to do it.

 

[DanFungus]

I think the 60's and 90's numbers mean somethin, because I have a 3390 on Cingular, and the comparable 3360 is for ATT.....