OT Cell phone replacement?

[FierteTi52]

Yesterday, my cell phone fell out of my truck and I ran it over in the driveway. It works, but the LCD display is shattered. I need to replace the phone but my carrier Cingular has all these expensive phones with too many features. Ebay has plenty of the exact phone (Nokia 6061) new advertised as unlocked and all I need to do is swap out my existing Sims card. Before I buy a new phone on Ebay, can ayone verify that all I need to do is swap the Sims card and this will require no visit or activation by Cingular. Also is my address book stored on the Sims card?
Thanks,
Jeff

[slowgoing]

1. You have to make sure the phone is designed for the Cingular system.

2. It should work with the same phone number when you swap simm cards. The new cards/phones keep the number on the card. However, some older phones had the phone number progammed into the phone, not the card. If that's the case, you will need to call Cingular to tell them to transfer your old number to your new phone. Not sure if they charge for this.

Good luck.

[Serotta PETE]

To make sure...I would go to the Cingular store and tell them what you want to do an ask them to transfer info and what it will cost to 'activate" the new phone. Have the model available....You might even get a person there who will give you a SPECIAL or the non-current phone......to more the phone


Good luck....In theory and practice what you want to do is ok BUT phone companies have gotten much smarter in how to attach their hands to more of your money...The rates are good BUT the "extra" fees and extra $$s for them

[SoCalSteve]

With Nextel (what we use in the movie business) thats all is required and the new phone will work, no fuss, no muss.

I am assuming it is a "newer" model and not a PDA, so yes it should work both in theorey and in practice. And, there is no need to tell the phone company what you are doing. Should be seemless.

Good luck,

Steve

[Kevan]

my daughter used that same exact excuse for needing a new phone. Hmmm....

[FierteTi52]

Thanks for the replies. This forum is a great resouce! The phone is less than 1 year old. I'm almost certain this is a plug and play situation. I will check with Cingular today and listen to what they have to say. In addition to saving a few bucks, I want a phone, not an entertainment device with a camera, MP3 player etc.
Jeff

[sc53]

Hi Jeff, I just did this on eBay with a Sprint phone. But mine was not a Simms card phone, no plug and play, I had to go to Sprint to get the number changed but they did not charge for this service. They did charge to transfer my contacts/phone book over from my old phone to my new ($15), which I agreed to pay, but then the store forgot to charge me because it took over an hour to do the transfer and by then a whole new staff had come on duty. And I didn't remind them to charge me $15 (sorry ethicists) because I thought it was a bogus charge anyway. I have a 2 yr contract with them that I have renewed about 10 times! They have made plenty of money off of me.

[jemoryl]

If your phone is a GSM phone (a standard, not a brand), swapping the SIM card should work. I think most Cingular phones are GSM, but because of the ATT to Cingular to ATT confusion, this may not always be the case. T-mobile and the rest of the world work on GSM phones, but all the other US carriers use proprietary phones that only work on their systems. GSM phones are nice to have if you travel to other countries, since you can either use the phone on a local service (but $$$) or possibly get a local SIM card.

[FierteTi52]

The phone is a standard GSM, and I plan to replace it with the exact model.
Jeff

[deechee]

uh the phones aren't proprietary, they're just "locked" to a carrier through a software code. Hardware is the same.

If the phone advertised on ebay says its *unlocked* (meaning open to all carriers) and you're certain the model is the same (I know that some companies differentiate models with a very short suffix (ie. nok 6070i, 6070c, 6070t etc.) then it will be plug and play. (maybe not for all data since your phone may not have stored your phonebook into the sim etc.)

Last but not least, why not ask Cingular if they can offer you another device? I used to get phone upgrades all the time. Haggle enough and you can minimize the contract extension...

[Hysbrian]

1. You can move a SIM card between any phone (sim compatible) and you aren't going to have any problems. If the phone is not an original cingular phone it will have to be "unlocked" so that you can use it on the cingular network.

2. Your contacts are not necessarily saved to the sim car, the only way to tell if they are is to pop it into another phone.

[stevep]

i did it myself and it works fine. i thk the phone book is on the sim card but i kinda forget now.
i thk it has to be a cingular phone to work w/ their sim card.

[stevep]

hey,
to think about it i have a perfectl;y functional cingular cel phone that you can have if you want it.
i have switched to verizon and its sitting here dead.
s

[CalfeeFly]

A suggestion to all reading is to pay a few dollars more a month for insurance. (Verizon offers it so I would think the others do.) I have more than gotten my money back. My wife's phone fell from her purse and it was replaced. I've had two replaced due to problems. Since I ride with my phone and use it everywhere I have considered it cheap protection.

[jemoryl]

uh the phones aren't proprietary, they're just "locked" to a carrier through a software code. Hardware is the same.

If the phone advertised on ebay says its *unlocked* (meaning open to all carriers) and you're certain the model is the same (I know that some companies differentiate models with a very short suffix (ie. nok 6070i, 6070c, 6070t etc.) then it will be plug and play. (maybe not for all data since your phone may not have stored your phonebook into the sim etc.)

Last but not least, why not ask Cingular if they can offer you another device? I used to get phone upgrades all the time. Haggle enough and you can minimize the contract extension...

Not so sure about this. Are you saying that you can buy an unlocked GSM phone, pop in a SIM and it will work with Sprint or Verizon? I thought these phones are CDMA, which is a different technology.

[Hysbrian]

Not so sure about this. Are you saying that you can buy an unlocked GSM phone, pop in a SIM and it will work with Sprint or Verizon? I thought these phones are CDMA, which is a different technology.

Sprint and Verizon ARE CDMA, and will not work with a SIM card. You can buy any GSM phone (t-mobile for example), unlock it and use it your cingular sim. The phone doesn't have to be a cingular phone for this to work.

[Serotta PETE]

Verizon has replaced three of the past two years...Two that my LAB liked and ONE that jumped into the toilet.......


A suggestion to all reading is to pay a few dollars more a month for insurance. (Verizon offers it so I would think the others do.) I have more than gotten my money back. My wife's phone fell from her purse and it was replaced. I've had two replaced due to problems. Since I ride with my phone and use it everywhere I have considered it cheap protection.

[slowgoing]

Two of my former Cingular phones are at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and Lake Powell. You can have them if you can find them.

[tachyon]

Thanks for the replies. This forum is a great resouce! The phone is less than 1 year old. I'm almost certain this is a plug and play situation. I will check with Cingular today and listen to what they have to say. In addition to saving a few bucks, I want a phone, not an entertainment device with a camera, MP3 player etc.
Jeff

You might just call and ask if your phone is covered under the service contract that they usually sneak into your bill.

[FierteTi52]

The story has a good ending. I tried my simms card in borrowed phone and it worked but I found out my phone book was not on the card, but stored on the phone. You can choose where your your numbers are stored via the phone settings. I went to Cingular to see if they could move my phone book to the Simms card which they did me. My intention was to buy a new phone on Ebay because the last time I lost a phone it was $149.00. It turns out my contact was almost finished and I was entitled to a phone upgrade. I renewed my contract and ended up with a new phone for $29.00. I set the default on this phone to store my phone book entries on the simms card and the phone to be safe.
Jeff

[Serotta PETE]

Glad there was a happy ending. Come down to the OPEN HOUSE JUNE 8th-10th and we will give you a glass of red and take a look at your phone...


PETE

:beer: