| Author |
Message |
ludemanr
Posts: 1
Service Provider:
AT & T |
 
Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:51 pm |
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My AT & T contract expires in October. Soon after I will be traveling to South Africa for several short trips of a week or two each. I want to purchase online a Motorola Razr unlocked Quad band phone that is compatible with AT & T in the Eugene, Oregon area nad could work in South Africa with purchase of different SIM cards in each location. I was told by Cingular here in Eugene that what I want to do is impossible as Cingular only accepts phones they sell me and they are locked negating use in South Africa on their SIM card with Vodocom. Isn't there a way to do this?
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Samsung
Posts: 3141
Phone Model:
Motorola RAZR2 V8 |
Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:39 am |
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yes, the At&t rep doesnt know what they are talking about. Buy the phone unlcoked and you can use with At&t and any gsm service provider worldwide minus 3G.
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Reggie
Posts: 4 |
Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:32 pm |
Just to add a comment to this post.
This is my situation, I presently have an AT&T phone (unfortunately old TDMA). As I wanted to keep my AT&T account, but upgrade from TDMA as I'm having numerous hassles, I purchased an unlocked Sony Ericcson K700i GSM (awesome) and a brand (still shrink wrapped) new AT&T sim card off eBay.
Thought it might be hard to switch my present number and account to new phone, but not impossible. The AT&T/Cingular rep (this was there specialised number for old AT&T customers, but answered as Cingular) told me that that is impossible to do. He was very helpful in pointing me in the direction of eBay to ge a new TDMA phone or could even put me through to Technical sales who would sell me a TDMA phone. He however claimed it was IMPOSSIBLE to activate an AT&T sim card on the GSM network. The only thing he said he could do was to switch my account (change the plan) to Cingular as they now use 64k cards wereas the old system (and AT&T used 32k sim cards). Obviously the old AT&T GSM network is still woking as people use it everyday, so I guess they have had a cut-off day of moving new customers onto that network.
So the route I thought would work of buying a new unlocked cell and a new sim card and then getting my old plan switched on this phone seems impossible. My old phone been TDMA seems to be the stumbling block here.
Unless I can get some insight from you clued in guys on how to do this, I will have to drop my AT&T plan and buy a Cingular sim card and then use them instead .... bummer, I was happy with my AT&T plan. I guess one day it was bound to happen, that everyone was moved over.
So unless someone better informed than me (tons of you here, I'm sure) can educate me, the route that xXxSamsungxXx advocates might not be possible anymore (obviously using it overseas with a GSM sim card from another provider is still possible, I'm just talking from a USA point of view).
Here's hoping I'm incorrect.... 
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Samsung
Posts: 3141
Phone Model:
Motorola RAZR2 V8 |
Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:40 pm |
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Im not 100% sure whats going on with TDMA AT&T accounts but if you already have a gsm account with them then you can use the unlocked gsm phone.
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Reggie
Posts: 4 |
Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:57 pm |
Unfortunately no GSM account with AT&T...any suggestions from anyone ?
Anyone been able to recently transfer a TDMA account to GSM (is this only an AT&T issue) ? I'm sure it can be done, it just depends if they want to.
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elmo01
Posts: 2206
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510
Service Provider:
Bell Canada |
Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:23 am |
| Reggie wrote: | Unfortunately no GSM account with AT&T...any suggestions from anyone ?
Anyone been able to recently transfer a TDMA account to GSM (is this only an AT&T issue) ? I'm sure it can be done, it just depends if they want to. |
any service migrations to GSM will go to Cingular unless it is a corporate sponsored acct (former ATT still has contractual obligations for GSM)
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Reggie
Posts: 4 |
Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:19 pm |
bad news for me, but thanks for the info 
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Reggie
Posts: 4 |
Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:28 pm |
Any ideas on how to get this to work...seen as I have bought the new phone ect (will have to try eBay the AT&T sim card then).
Option 1: Buy a new 64k sim card from eBay or Cingular. Pro's & Con's ? Will Cingular just sell you a sim card ? As I guess I will have to start a Cingular plan, do I simply take in the K700, buy a sim card there and sign up for a new plan ? There should be no contract for this option right as there is no subsidized equipment.
Option 2: Get a freebie phone from Cingular and swap the sim card into my K700. Does one have to sign your life away for a freebie phone ie: two year contract ? I guess I would port my present number over to that freebie phone and then poping the sim card in my new phone would "carry it over" to the K700.
Sorry for all the questions, just want to get this right as the AT&T TDMA service has got progressively worse and I feel like I'm paying full price for half the service these days.
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