Information about Unlocked phones

[nodoubts2k]

How do they work? from my understanding they allow you to use phones that your carrier doesnt allow? I really like the sony erickson phones, but verizon doesnt support them (i dont think)

some links or something would be nice.

A.

 

[Nocturnal]

Unlocked phones are mainly GSM based phones. GSM phones use the SIM card. T-Mobile, Cingular, AT&T GSM, etc.

You can take your SIM card from T-Mobile and put it into an unlocked GSM phone, say the Panasonic GD55 (T-Mobile nor AT&T nor Cingular carries this phone).

 

[nodoubts2k]

A sim card is the little chip you put in? I thought that was for prepaid phones only..my phone (samsung a310) to my knowledge doesnt have one.

Im sorry if this is a noobish post :frown:

Edit: I was looking at the verizon site and found this:

Tri-mode phones work on all three frequencies: 1900 MHz digital, 800 MHz digital or reverting to 800 MHz analog cellular when digital is not available.

So if i get an unlocked tri band would it work?

 

[Imdmn04]

gsm wireless companies: t-mobile, cingular, and part of ATT

Verizon and Sprint uses cdma, which does not apply to sim cards, which doesnt apply to unlocked phones.

so if you have a verizon or sprint phone, u cant "unlock it".

u can only unlock gsm phones that takes a sim card(which holds your account and number), after u unlock it, say you got your phone from t-mobile, then u can use another sim card in this phone from another gsm carrier such as cingular.