I've seen some pretty decent deals on PDA phones on ebay. But they are usually for verizon or sprint networks in the states. Is it possible to get these phones activated on a Canadian network?
As jonesy said, it's all dependant of whether it's locked or not. The second issue is whether you can find a carrier willing to add an unlocked phone. I'm not sure what policy Rogers, Bell, Telus or Fido have with regards to that. I know I've heard that some of them don't accept unlocked phones onto their network, so you may have to do some investigating before jumping in.
TELUS Mobility and Bell (the CDMA networks) will not take unlocked ("foreign") phones. I know Verizon is CDMA, but not sure about Sprint.
Rogers and Fido (GSM networks) will for a slight charge. (It was $25 under Fido, but that was before it was purchased by Rogers.) Rogers discourages this behaviour, but I believe they will do it. Though I think if you already *have* a Rogers/Fido phone, there's nothing they can do to stop you from putting your SIM card in a new one. (Changing over a CDMA phone is not this simple.)
There are places where you can get a GSM phone unlocked for a small fee.
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As long as the phone uses a SIM card, you should be able to unlock it and use it here, and only Rogers and Fido offer phones with SIM card service. So if you already have an account, you would just need to place your SIM card into a unlocked phone, and you're good to go.
Providers here don't like it when you use a phone that's not offered by them, so I wouldn't bother asking Rogers or Fido for help. There are a ton of independent phone resellers that sell grey market phones (phones not offered by the big 4) that will unlock your phone for you for a fee of around $25. Usually a bunch at any Asian mall, but some at easier to find places like the Eaton Centre, there's a few booth shops that sell mobile accessories that also do unlocking.
The process is pretty simple, they hook your phone up to a pc, and reformat your phone taking out any locked features.
You can also try going to howardsforum.com, there are a bunch of phone geeks who will do it for you, probably for a cheaper price than the stores.
You cannot use CDMA phones (Telus, Bell) on Rogers or fido. It is not at all possible.
You can use foreign (including Rogers on fido or vice versa, or international) GSM phones on Rogers or fido, if they are unlocked. In many cases, it's easy to do this yourself, especially with Nokia phones, less so sometimes with PDA phones. There are local services that will unlock remotely or in person for about $40 depending on the phone. ( www.bongowireless.com e.g.)
Changing phones on Rogers, for example, is as easy as putting your SIM card from one phone into another Rogers phone, or into a GSM, unlocked phone. That's it. There is no charge, no fee, nil.
Actually, Rogers encourages this now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonal
TELUS Mobility and Bell (the CDMA networks) will not take unlocked ("foreign") phones. I know Verizon is CDMA, but not sure about Sprint.
Rogers and Fido (GSM networks) will for a slight charge. (It was $25 under Fido, but that was before it was purchased by Rogers.) Rogers discourages this behaviour, but I believe they will do it. Though I think if you already *have* a Rogers/Fido phone, there's nothing they can do to stop you from putting your SIM card in a new one. (Changing over a CDMA phone is not this simple.)
There are places where you can get a GSM phone unlocked for a small fee.
Before you use a US phone, or make any international calls, read the fine print and investigate *very, very carefully* what the charges will be. Not that I actually know anything, except for this story about a guy who was charged $4,800 for using his iPhone while on an international vacation.
You can only bring a GSM phone to Canada, GSM phones use a SIM chip, as long as the phone is unlocked your SIM chip should work on almost any GSM phone. CDMA phones don't have a SIM chip, it's programmed into the phone, it's much more difficult with a phone like that.
You might want to consider looking at european phones, certain places sell gray-market phones like that. Euro phones tend to be more advanced then North American phones
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