Unlocking a phone can be useful, but much more so in Europe. The US is still in the process of switching to GSM. Basically most GSM phones have a service provider lock. This means it will only accept a sim card from that provider. Once a phone is unlocked, you can use it with any gsm service provider given that the provider uses a frequency that your phone can recognize. That is where dual and tri band phones come into play. A triband typically uses 900,1800, and 1900 frequency. There is also an 850 freq. But it isn't used a ton. US uses 1900 and some 850. Europe uses 1800 and 900. Check out gsmarena.com to get a good reference to phone specs. Good luck and let me know if you need any more help. PCW2
pat Posts: 9
Phone Model: Samsung X105
Service Provider: T - Mobile
Thu Apr 08, 2004 12:58 pm
hey man thanks for replying
now i clearly understand what it can do
pcwalker2 Posts: 28
Phone Model: v205
Service Provider: t-mobile
Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:55 pm
No problem. Just let me know if you need anything else. PCW2
Cellguy Posts: 20
Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:42 pm
It allows you to use any phone on any provider.
Samsung Posts: 3141
Phone Model: Motorola RAZR2 V8
Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:09 am
Cellguy wrote:
It allows you to use any phone on any provider.
Correction! Sim Subsidy Unlock allows you to use your GSM phone with any other GSM provider or TDMA with TDMA etc... Cannot use TDMA with GSM provider or visa versa (unless the phone is both TDMA and GSM)
Cellguy Posts: 20
Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:04 am
Yes that is what I meant. Different systems are not as yet cross compatible.
Samsung Posts: 3141
Phone Model: Motorola RAZR2 V8
Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:22 am
There are phones out there that are both GSM and CDMA/TDMA
Cellguy Posts: 20
Tue Jun 07, 2005 2:07 pm
Unfortunately, the only ones I heard about were carried by AT&T and we all know what happened to them.
