Replacing Cingular phone?

November 13, 2006 3:20 PM

My girlfriend recently damaged her Cingular phone and she needs a replacement. She wants a cheap one, so she's considering buying a pay-as-you-go phone and swapping out SIM cards so she can use her old service. My question is, will this work?

She's worried that if she buys a new pay-as-you-go phone (Such as this.) swapping the SIM from her old to the new one might not work. She doesn't want to have to buy a whole new phone + plan since she already has one and would like to continue it. Does anyone have any experience with this or know whether this is possible?

posted by Aanidaani to Technology (5 answers total)

I lost my phone and the representative in the Cingular store suggested exactly this to me. I had to buy $25 worth of pay as you go service, but the phone was significantly cheaper than any of the others.

I didn't do the swapping of the SIM card myself, the rep in the store did it for me, so she should just ask them to do that for her.
posted by Caz721 at 3:28 PM on November 13, 2006

Yes it does. Although you should know that if you happen to be an AT&T customer who has Cingular billing but is still on an AT&T plan, it does not work, you will have to unlock your phone, which you can either do yourself or pay about $10-$15 to do.
posted by hindmost at 3:32 PM on November 13, 2006

How soon does she need the phone? I have a Nokia 6010 from Cingular sitting right here. It's not brand new, but is in near perfect condition. It came with a Cingular SIM. I'm pretty sure I have the charger around here too.

If you're interested, email me (support at pbp dot net) - you guys can have it for free. I don't need it for anything.
posted by drstein at 8:56 PM on November 13, 2006

I did this and picked up a $50 pay-as-you go at Wal-Mart. Works great. Make sure to buy the model that works with that particular carrier, as not all pay-as-you-goes work with Cingular, T-Mobile, whathaveyou.

You can also get used phones on eBay, assuming she can wait a few days for shipping. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably do this, as my phone is lacking in the feature department.
posted by Happydaz at 9:57 PM on November 13, 2006

My brother in law tried this with a phone he bought in Asia. He found he could make calls, but that texting was impossible. Perhaps it was due to the configuration of the phone, but that is a consideration.

I'd say that as long as the new phone isn't locked, you should be able to swap out the SIM and use it.
posted by reenum at 10:52 AM on November 14, 2006