Meaning of *unlocked* cell phone

[tweaker]

I was looking up the Nokia Eseries E71 cell phone and found one on NewEgg. The description says it is "unlocked".


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875205116&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-75-205-116-_-Homepage

Can someone explain to me what that really means to me? I currently have a Nokia 1600 Cell Phone with Net10 Pre-Paid service. Does this mean I can put my SIM into this phone and it'd work? Fully functional? GPS? Everything?

[tokenuser]

I was looking up the Nokia Eseries E71 cell phone and found one on NewEgg. The description says it is "unlocked".


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875205116&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-75-205-116-_-Homepage

Can someone explain to me what that really means to me? I currently have a Nokia 1600 Cell Phone with Net10 Pre-Paid service. Does this mean I can put my SIM into this phone and it'd work? Fully functional? GPS? Everything?Yes. Unlocked means it can be used on any carrier.

[davmoo]

Yes. Unlocked means it can be used on any carrier.

To a point. A GSM phone cannot be used on a CDMA network. The reverse is also true. Thus, for example, an iPhone is not going to work on Verizon's network, and unlocking it will make no difference there.

[tweaker]

OK this may need some explaining but for what I have, Net10, will this phone work?

[tokenuser]

Net10 is a brand of Tracfone. They are a GSM based carrier.

About the only thing you will lose is the "remaining airtime" indicator - that is a function of the OS, and is specific to TracFone phones, so it wont be on be on the Nokia.

Apart from that, you are good to go.

[tweaker]

Yeah I think the time indicator is way plenty good for me then. I keep having to buy 300 more minutes every 2 months only to pill on top of the already existing 500+ from the past 4 months. I rarely use the phone as a phone (the phone sucks that bad) so I thought if this E71 which also showed it had GPS and Bluetooth, I could hook that up through my Pioneer head unit in my car since it has Bluetooth. And for that price it seemed like it was worth it.

[meharune]

Tracfone and their sister service Net10 use proprietary SIMS cards tied to the phones.

Here's a link about this very thing:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1449635

Also read through the prepaid section on Howardforums, you will find plenty of complaints about this.

Link to Howardforums: http://www.howardforums.com

The phones can be unlocked and used on other services, but not Tracfone/Net10.

[tweaker]

Oh wow. I just got hosed then. Here I was excited about getting this new phone and now I won't be able to use it. Where were you like 6+ hours ago? Is there any prepaid service plan that I could subscribe to that would work with this new phone?

[meharune]

Oh wow. I just got hosed then. Here I was excited about getting this new phone and now I won't be able to use it. Where were you like 6+ hours ago? Is there any prepaid service plan that I could subscribe to that would work with this new phone?
Sorry for being late. The only 2 services that I know of are TMobile and AT&T. Most of the others use different systems. If you're using prepaid either of the 2 I listed will work, but fancy stuff like data and extended features are crippled or over priced.
If you plan on still using Net10, the best phone they have is the LG-600, note that bluetooth on this phone is NOT crippled according to users on Howardforums. Hope this helps.

[tweaker]

Well what I wanted to use it for was phone, bluetooth and gps. While I know I wouldn't have been able to use a data plan for the rest of the phone it would have been nice to at least have that there as an availability.

Are there any prepaid plans out there that don't have a contract to them that would work well with this phone seeing as I already spent the money foolishly listening to the unverified support/comments here?

[meharune]

AT&T or TMobile are the top 2. Both have prepaid plans. Also another thing to consider is coverage. Most prepaid plans offer a coverage area alot smaller than their postpaid. Do you travel alot? That can affect who you go with.
Bluetooth should work with most providers, that allow you to bring your own phone. GPS should also work fine, but don't quote me on that.
AT&T has data available, according to reports on Howardforums, they're really screwing with the terms and pricing.

Also checkout http://www.cellguru.net/index.htm , this site has alot of info about the different prepaid plans available.
Hopefully this helps some.

[tweaker]

No I do not travel a lot and when I do its usually to bigger dense cities (philly, and los angeles).