How do I transfer a donated cell phone from Bell to Telus?

February 3, 2010 9:35 AM

Transfer cell phone from Bell to Telus (Ontario)

My teenage son has cell phone service with Telus in Ontario (as do I). We've been given an HTC PPC 6800 by a very kind friend who used it on the Bell network but never terminated her contract (she has an iPhone now) and she's paying $10/month until September, when it runs out.

My understanding (after much Googling) is that the phone has to be unlocked (I have no idea how to do this) and I can then inform Telus of the handset change (I think I can do this online).

Does anybody know how I can get the HTC phone working on Telus? Where do I get the unlock code?

posted by HarrysDad to Technology (4 answers total)

Bell and Telus both use CDMA networks (as opposed to GSM used by Rogers). To my knowledge, CDMA cellphones cannot be unlocked. Bell is hardwired into that cellphone and thus it will always be a Bell phone. I may be mistaken, but having worked for both Bell and Telus, I've never heard of it done. I'm interested to see if I'm proven wrong in this thread though!

Your other options include moving your son's phone number to Bell in order to use the phone, or selling the phone (after the contract is up or the phone is no longer in use) and using the proceeds to help pay for a new Telus phone.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 10:35 AM on February 3, 2010

Telus reception is uniformly dismal in downtown Toronto (we have a corporate account), so you might not want to do this.
posted by scruss at 11:04 AM on February 3, 2010

As far as I know, this cannot be done. I would check with the guys on the HowardForums though, they would know best.
http://www.howardforums.com/
posted by smitt at 1:17 PM on February 3, 2010

Response by poster: Telus said it couldn't be done, although I'm sure this can be done, we've opted for putting him on the Bell network. I got a $5/month bundled discount too!
posted by HarrysDad at 6:23 AM on February 4, 2010