Switching SIM Cards?

October 16, 2006 12:32 PM

Cell phone: switching SIM card advice?

hello AskMeFi- i'm traveling to southeast asia in a few months and was hoping to have a cell phone. towards this, i've heard about unlocking my phone and "switching the SIM card".

1. how hard is it to unlock a phone?
2. how hard is it to get a new SIM card in a different country? does my phone number change when i do this?
3. is switching the SIM card a better route than getting a triband phone and paying roaming fees?

extra credit:

4. can i do this with a motorala slivr? (i have my eyes on getting one)
5. and last, some of my friends are urging me to wait till i get to SE asia and buy my phone there, due to their superior technology, etc. does this make any real sense? i don't fancy trying to navigate menus in 10-point vietnamese. would the phone work when i got back to the domestic coverage of Cingular?

thank you for your help!
-cgs

posted by cgs to technology (7 comments total)

1. It's usually not very hard to unlock a cell phone. If you haven't bought the phone yet, poke around on eBay and the like and see if you can buy of the phone you want already unlocked (these unlocked phones are more expensive than the carrier-subsidized phones, though). Otherwise, there are many websites that will unlock your phone (for a fee), and you can also get unlocking kits (also from eBay) that let you unlock your phone manually.

2. I don't know much about this, but I think you may just be able to walk into a mobile store and purchase a prepaid SIM card. Your phone number will likely change when you do this.

3. I would guess that buying a prepaid SIM card would be a fair bit cheaper than dealing with roaming hassles. My brother-in-law tried to do this in Mexico (not exactly the same, I know) and Verizon tried repeatedly to screw him over with exorbitant fees.

4. This site will do unlocking of a SLVR if you send them the IMEI number from the phone. I'm sure there are others as well.

5. I think it's common now for mobiles to have several options for menu languages, so if you were to purchase one after you arrived at your destination, there's a fair chance you could just switch the language to English. Don't know about whether the phone would work when you got back to the US, but there's a good chance of it working.

Kinda vague, I know, but I hope that helps you a little bit.
posted by Shecky at 1:01 PM on October 16, 2006

1. Depends on the brand. Nokias are by far the easiest to unlock, but there are all sorts of websites that will either sell you unlock codes or cables to do unlocking for most brands.
2. Not hard, all you have to do is walk into a stall, and cellphone stalls are pretty much omnipresent in Southeast Asia. Some countries, they'll even be in the airport. And yes, your number will change to a local one.
3. If by "better route" you mean "incredibly cheaper", yes. It's up to you to weigh whether or not the inconvenience of informing friends back home of your number each time you change it (assuming you're going to multiple countries) is worth you saving a lot of money.
4. If it's unlocked, yes.
5. If it's unlocked, yes. re: language—phones come loaded with a wide choice of languages, depending on what part of what continent they're destined for, but English is always an option.
posted by lia at 1:04 PM on October 16, 2006

For a GSM phone to work in the US, it must have the 850/1900 band. For it to work in Asia, it must have the 900/1800 band. If it's unlocked, the SLVR will work in both places as it is a quadband phone.
posted by Neiltupper at 1:20 PM on October 16, 2006

1. how hard is it to unlock a phone?

Not hard. My experience is with T-Mobile. I call them up and say "Hello, I'd like to unlock my phone". They shuffle me through to a different operator, and that operator walks me through the process. It's just a matter of navigating to a hidden menu and typing in a number.

2. how hard is it to get a new SIM card in a different country? does my phone number change when i do this?

Depends on the country (you may be able to order one online before you ever leave), and Yes. The GSM card is your phone's ID card to the network.

3. is switching the SIM card a better route than getting a triband phone and paying roaming fees?

Depends on how you will be using the phone. If you'll only be making/taking a handful of calls when abroad, you might be better off sucking up the exhorbitant per-minute int'l roaming charges than buying a prepaid ~$20 card that you won't fully use.

4. can i do this with a motorala slivr? (i have my eyes on getting one)

You can do it with any GSM phone, assuming it is unlocked.

5. and last, some of my friends are urging me to wait till i get to SE asia and buy my phone there, due to their superior technology, etc. does this make any real sense? i don't fancy trying to navigate menus in 10-point vietnamese. would the phone work when i got back to the domestic coverage of Cingular?

As long as it works with Cingular frequencies, it'll work. Whether you can get a snazzier phone cheaper while abroad is another question--you can get those foreign-only phones in the USA through importgsm.com
posted by adamrice at 3:16 PM on October 16, 2006

5. If you do want to buy the phone overseas, it might be worth checking if your warranty will be valid in the US. You may have to ship the phone back to asia in order to get it repaired under warranty should anything happen to it.
posted by cholly at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2006

Two things you have to be aware of: One, you'll need a quad-band phone, because american phones use different GSM bands than everybody else. Two, if you tell the phone company you're going overseas, they'll give you the unlock code over the phone.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:41 PM on October 16, 2006

From what I read the last time I researched this Cingular/ATT will not unlock the phone for you (T-Mobile will do it for customers with T-Mo phones once you've had the phone a few months).

U want to be careful whom you use to unlock the phone as I guess the IMEI which U need to provide can be used by phone thiefs (maybe?).

If you want to use your Cingular service while abroad you may have to ring Cingular to activate International roaming.

A good place to ask phone questions is: http://www.howardforums.com/

My advise, try & get a cool affordable unlocked quad-band phone while your abroad (much cooler than the crap the US providers fob off on us). ;)
posted by zaphod at 5:07 PM on October 16, 2006