Cellular Phone Programming Guides? 25
cainpitt asks: "I work for a small telecommunications company that activates the three major types of cellphones, CDMA, TDMA and GSM as a reseller for the major carriers. We activate old phones and we sometimes need to check them for compatibility and programming instructions. We've been using an application named Cellurom from Bishop and Associates for a few years now. This application had information from almost every manufacturer and every phone sold in the U.S. However, we just found out they will no longer be updating Cellurom with new phones. Does the Slashdot community know of subscription-based software that can provide programming and operating instructions for cell phones?"
BernieS@2600.com (Score:2, Funny)
Or try Kevin Mitnick.
Activation? (Score:2)
Re:Activation? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Your .sig: It's Great! (NT) (Score:1)
Re:Activation? (Score:1)
Cellular providers here will usually provide a phone which has been "locked" to their network. This prevents you from using the phone with other provider's networks unless you download the unlocking tool from the Internet or pay the chap at your local market a fiver to do it for you. This phone lock mechanism reads the provider ID from the SIM card and if they don't match, the
Re:Activation? (Score:5, Informative)
This is done to lock you into the carrier. Also in the US many carriers have Early Termination Fees (ETF) so if you sign up and cancel, normally before 2 years, its normally a $175 charge. This is especially true if your on promotional plans and getting 50 phones for $0.01. They want you to pay air time charges for all those free phones.
GSM Based Networks:
Cingular/ATT, Tmobile
Since they use GSM they have SIM cards thus you can *normally* can get a phone from say EBay that has previously been used on the same network and swap SIM cards no problem. This can be locked by the carrier if they choose, but most allow SIM swaps on phones which have been used on their network.
Phones from other networks will REQUIRE an unlock code or software. Most of the times a quick call to the carrier and they will provide the code over the phone or email.
CDMA:
CDMA does not use SIMS, there is a similar R-UIDM card available, but the one phone in the US market that has it the carrier specifically locked its use out.
Alltel:
Phones not locked, but BEWARE: Alltel is absolutely anal about this! NO ANALOG AMPS or NON GPS phones will be activated on their network, period. So if you want to keep your ancient phone around as a back up and use while you get a replacement think again. You must call to do an ESN change, no web changes. NO GPS, NO SWAP/ACTIVATE, AMPS only, NO!
Verizon:
Phones are not locked, except old PrimeCO units that may be floating around, probably all gone now unless your like me and don't change phones every other day.
Online ESN swap for FREE, $15 charge via phone. If its not a phone they have used on their network you may have to call and tell them its a similar phone to get it to do the PRL update.
NOTE: If your a Bluetooth fanatic, DO NOT USE VERIZON! They will disable most of the usable functions of Bluetooth as they did on the V710. They also will disable any thing that would allow you to put ring tones on the phone or take pictures off the phone via PC or avoid the charge to do so. You need to get a NON VERIZON version of any BT phone to use any thing other than headset mode.
SprintPCS:
Phones LOCKED REQUIRE the Master Subsidy Lock (MSL) code to reprogram to another network. Hit or miss on getting this code from them. Also ESN can be locked to SprintPCS. Many carriers especially Verizon will NOT activate former SprintPCS phones and they can tell by the ESN.
MetroPCS
Phones locked will require an unlock code to mirgrate to another carrier.
iDEN-TDMA
Nextel/Boost:
Nextel/Boost does use SIM's but Nextel likes to tie the SIM to the phone so you have to get a new SIM on every new phone.
You can swap a Boost SIM into a Nextel phone with out issue, you need to UNLOCK Boost phones to use a Nextel SIM in them.
ALL NEW Boost phones are "double locked" with a code that has not been cracked, yet. This is NOT the Subsidy Lock that can be defeated via certain software on Nextel/Boost.
Sjeez - I'm glad I live in Europe .. (Score:2)
That's not real choice IMHO, but then again I don't live there. Maybe there's some hidden benefit that I don't see?
= Ch =
Re:Sjeez - I'm glad I live in Europe .. (Score:1)
I do agree that this "lock in" needs to die. There should just be a store with phones pick the one you like that matches your network CDMA, 1900 & 800, or what ever.
Unfortunately its been that way since things started nearly 20 years ago. The first phones put into my cars all were practically cheap or free with a free or low cost insta
The Problem (Score:1)
tdma? (Score:2)
CDMA autoprograms, GSM is programmed via the card, and TDMA basically doesn't exist anymore.
So, what's the issue?
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Re:tdma? (Score:2)
TDMA doesn't support E911 does it? How does that work?
Re:tdma? (Score:2)
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
They are transitioning to GSM nationwide here in the U.S. but they have a pretty hefty investment in their cell towers in TDMA equipment. So are they just throwing it out the window? Nope. They are reselling TMDA to at least one company, who is offering pre-paid cell service for bargain prices. The company that I know about is Beyond Wireless.
It works like this. You get yourself a TDMA phone
Re:tdma? (Score:2)
Watch out for a gotcha. Read the fine print. Many of the pre-paid plans expire at 24 months regardless of usage. It changes the price of the paging service if you bought a $100 pre-pay.
With a $10 pre pay, it's closer to 84 + 14.2 cents per 2 months. It's even higher if you pre-paid for more minute
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
I don't see any such fine print with Beyond Wireless. They very clearly say, and my experience so far seems to support "Your Minutes NEVER EXPIRE" (their gratuitous exclamation points omitted).
If you can point me at something different, I'd appreciate knowing the catch. But as I said, so far it seems to be a great deal
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Well, one thing is, they'll never expire so long as you keep buying minutes. So, after 3 or 4 months if you haven't "recharged" your minutes they'll usually terminate your service.
However, if you pay the bare minimum every 2 or 3 months, your minutes just keep accumulating. At one point I had like $220 worth of
Re:tdma? (Score:1)
Well, I've not seen anything that requires me to buy more minutes on a regular basis either, and in fact, I even ran the perfect case scenario past a sales rep, which was, "So, if my father, for example, who doesn't like the idea of spending money on something he would rarely use, such as a cell phone, were to get a cheap TDMA
Me too. (Score:1)
So if you could somehow put that CD in a plain brown envelope and I'll meet you at the coffee shop downstairs, y'know coz they have good coffee there....