Basic facts about our cell phone unlocking service

What is it?
We offer unlocking service to both individual and business customers. By unlocking your cell phone, you can choose to use your cell phone with any compatible network. A restricted ("locked") phone can only work with one network (e.g. AT&T). Consumers can have great savings on international roaming, or from not having to purchase another phone when signing up for a different network. For most phones, you can purchase an unlock code from us.

In the past, unlock codes were much more difficult to obtain and the only mean to unlock most cell phones is to use special equipment and software. However, now with the availability of more unlock codes, we discontinued the unlocking service by post and offer you the greater convenience of getting unlock code by email.

However, occasionally, the code might not be found for some phones, in this case, we will refund your payment and refer you to a reputable company who still offers service by mail. Our current success rate is about 98% calculating and finding unlock codes.

For more detailed explanations on cell phone unlocking, see our FAQ.

How do I know if my phone is restricted
If you bought a prepaid or postpaid phone from a carrier in the U.S., Canada, at a discount, your phone is subsidized and restricted (with very rare exceptions it is not). If you insert another network's SIM card into your phone, and if it is rejected, then you know the handset is certainly restricted. Common error messages of a phone locked to a specific service provider when you insert a different SIM card are: Subsidy password, SP (Service Provider) lock, phone restrictions. NCK, NSCK, SPCK, Insert Correct SIM Card, Phone Restricted, Enter Special Code, Contact Service Provider, Cannot Undo Restriction, Wrong SIM Card, Not Allowed.If you see any of these error messages, then you need to unlock your phone.

If you see errors such as "SIM PIN" or "Enter PUK" or "SIM Blocked", it has nothing to do with your phone. These errors are the result of the security on the SIM card itself. For more detailed explanations on various SIM errors, read the FAQ.

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
A smart card containing the telephone number of the customer, encoded network identification details such as: Call Forwarding, Caller ID, etc., the PIN, and other user data such as the phone book. You can move your SIM card from any GSM phone to any other unlocked GSM phones compatible with the SIM card’s network without the need to contact them to activate the new phone. Your rate plan and phone number are registered to the SIM, not the phone. For GSM phones, the SIM is what determines the service on your account, not the phone.

Business customer
If you are a business with employees who travel overseas, your company can quickly realize significant cost reduction on international mobile phone long distance and roaming. We offer the only "Certified Unlocked" program in the world by remote code or mail. Read details.

Travelers
What are the savings?
No more roaming fees can quickly add up to big savings. Unlock (unrestricted) your phone, when you arrive at the destination, purchase a local pre-paid SIM card (no contract, no bills, no surprises), and you will quickly realize how much you can save. In western Europe, a pre-paid SIM card cost about $30 to $50 with airtime. In most Asian countries, you can get a pre-paid SIM card for under $20. Most international wireless carriers offer free incoming calls. Why pay $1 to $4 a minute roaming fees? We recommend you visit Travelcomm for a pre-paid SIM card.

I bought a cell phone abroad, can it work in the US?
The predominant GSM radio band used in Canada, US, and Mexico is 1900MHz. However, 850MHz is also deployed in some parts of the country. If you try to use a cell phone purchased from abroad, regardless whether it needs unlocking, it must at least 1900MHz band.

I want to travel with cell phone abroad, can it work outside the US?
If you have a GSM world phone with at least 900MHz or 1800MHz band, then it will work in most countries outside the US once unlocked. If you are traveling to Ecuador or Panama, your cell phone must have 850MHz band.

My phone does not have a SIM card (CDMA)
Your phone is either a really old TDMA phone or a CDMA phone. Those technologies do not use SIM cards. For sure you don't have a GSM phone.

Recently few CDMA phone also began to have SIM card socket for storing things such as phonebook and other information. However, this type of feature in CDMA phones is not very popular and they are NOT GSM phones unless specifically indicated.

There are two dual-technology CDMA / GSM phones available: Samsung A790 (from Verzion, we cannot unlock this model yet), and RIM Blackberry 8830 (Sprint's version has GSM portion unlocked so it may be used abroad, Verzion's version has CDMA portion unlocked but the GSM portion is locked to Vodafone).

If you are interested in changing your CDMA cell phone to a compatible CDMA network, this free web site offers comprehensive information on how to do it.

Logistics

Can I unlock my phone remotely?
We now offer unlock codes for most Cingular, AT&T and T-Mobile phones and most Motorola and Nokia phones. The time to generate the unlock code is up to two business days. Once we have your code, we will email you along with the instruction.

Is cell phone unlocking legal?
It is legal. Thanks to companies like ours and consumer advocate groups, we helped to raise the awareness of the "cell phone unlocking" issue. The US Copyright office has explicitly made cell phone unlocking an exemption from the DMCA, even though it was legal before the ruling. Even your network service provider does it under various conditions.

If I unlocked my phone for one network, do I need to unlock it for another network?
No. Once you unlocked it, your cell phone is open to all compatible network.

What if I need to bring or mail my phone for service?
Due to the availability of unlock code for some of the most popular phones, we recently discontinued the mail unlocking program in favor for the remote unlocking program. We do not accept any requests at this time for cell phone unlocking by mail. However, we can suggest you to look through our directory of cell phone unlocking locations to see if there is one in your area. In addition, if you need to mail your phone, please contact GS Wireless (an independent company who was formerly affiliated with our company) for information.

Technical

How do I enter the unlock code I just received?
Unlock code entry methods for popular GSM phones

How do I set the WAP, MMS (Picture Messaging) on my phone?
How to set the WAP, MMS (Picture Messaging) on your T-Mobile, ATT and Sony Ericsson phones

I like to use my phone on XYZ network, can you unlock it and make it work?
See FAQ chart for a complete list of networks grouped by network technologies.

Can I use my Sprint phone on T-Mobile/Cingular/ATT/other GSM network?
Sprint uses CDMA radio network technology and is incompatible with GSM network and vice versa.

Can I use my Verizon phone on T-Mobile/Cingular/ATT/other GSM network?
Verizon also uses CDMA. See above.

Can I use my Cingular / T-Mobile / ATT phone on Sprint network?
No. Cingular / T-Mobile / ATT use GSM technology is is not compatible with Sprint, which uses CDMA.

Can I use my Cingular / T-Mobile / ATT phone on Verizon network?
See above.

Can I use my Nextel / Boost phone with Cingular / T-Mobile / ATT?
Nextel / Boost phones and made by Motorola and use the i-DEN network technology, which is similar to GSM in many ways including the usage of SIM card. However, i-DEN phones cannot operate on GSM networks.

Can I use Verizon / Cricket / Qwest / US Cellular / Alltel phone on Sprint network?
Technically yes, practically no. Technically you should be able to use any compatible CDMA handset on Sprint's network. However, even if you have the right handset, unlocked and programmed for Sprint, Sprint's activation policy does not permit a non-Sprint phone to be activated. This is a company policy issue, not a technical one. Hence, any phone that is not sold by Sprint cannot be activated on Sprint.

Can I use my Nextel / Boost phone with Verizon / Sprint?
No. i-DEN and CDMA are not compatible.

How do I find out the model of my phone?
In most phones, the model information is usually located on the back label. You will need to remove the battery to locate it. Some phones may have the model number on the face of the phone. In other cases, the carrier removed the model tag and replaced it with its own logo. The FCC ID or the CE mark is not the model.

What is flashing? Why would I want it?
Flashing a phone means changing or replacing the existing software inside the phone's electronically programmable memory. Depending on the purpose, flashing a phone can correct software bugs, improve phone performance, change languages, and add or remove features.

I would like to flash my phone, upgrade the firmware, debrand or change the language
We have discontinued offering this service at this time.