Stupid USA SIM/GSM cell phone question

I know that most GSM phones in the US are locked to their SIMs so that you can't use the phone on another network. But are the SIMs locked to the phones?

I'm interested in using a 3rd party phone on my AT&T account and it would be easier to not involve AT&T at all if I can just take the SIM out of my old phone and pop it in the new phone.

I don't know if it's any different in US, but here I don't think the SIM is locked to the phone. I don't know if it's even possible...

Stig

No, SIM cards are not locked to phones. Unless its stupid iPhones.

What you want to do is as simple as you describe. Provided of course that the new phone is unlocked.

I just took the SIM out of my stupid iPhone and put it in a Motorola F3. It works fine.

But it probably won't work in another iphone, don't they do lock them to specific sims instead of just the provider?

Edit: I guess I was wrong: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=526883

Perhaps here in the UK then? Or perhaps I've just dreamed this

Not that anyone cares, I'm thinking about getting a Kogan Agora to replace my work-provided Blackberry.

I care! Looks nice. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with Android.

BTW, every time I think of the name of the phone, this pops into my head:

Going off topic a little, but I think that's been done.

That Kogan brand simply badges Chinese products in case you weren't aware. Their TVs aren't the greatest which is what they're known for in Australia. I guess it all depends on who is badging it for them.

Fair enough. Thanks for the info. I'm going to try to get a remedy for the fact that the Blackberry 8820 sucks ass through my corporate account manager first.

Ouch, he wants to see a doctor about that.

Peter

I suppose that's what I get for posting half-awake and angry.

Who doesn't, these days?

True, but this guy Ruslan Kogan really is just an importer and has never designed any of his own products. He basically goes to China and finds factories and says something like: "I want this TV with these features and my name on it"

I give him credit for being enterprising and I think he's doing fairly well at it even though the brand name LCD TVs like Samsung are generally better for a quite a small amount more $s.

Apple, speaking as someone who is currently sitting in China and very much designing products. Yes, everything is *made* in China but there's a big difference between ODM products (badged) and using a contract manufacturer.

Hugo

I thought China blocked internet access to subversive web sites. How'd you manage to get through to the empegbbs?

With any luck the Chinese will use the unofficial empeg BBS as an example of advanced technical discourse and the FAQ as an example of perfect product documentation.

Great, just what we need, the fall of China blamed on haphazard intermittently-updated documentation.

Hmmm...
So far as I know, the last time Hugo spent his days cavorting in China was just before the iPhone came to market.

Now now, no rumor-mongering

I was in China a lot for the first phone (7 times, in fact), but shortly after that launched I became a dad and hence got out of factory trips for a while. In reality, there are builds going on all the time so you really can't read anything into me being here. Honest.

Hugo

I hope they pay you extra to feed us this bulls**t.

No no. China doesn't mind the good old empegbbs. I'm in Hangzhou right now. In fact there was some Chinese site cloning parts of BBS at one stage. As long as we don't say anything bad against the **** ****** ***** *** we'll be just fine

My employer's VPN however does not let me use it. It did for the first one or two times I tried it. After I got the standard blocked access message. They must grep the logs or something looking for standard BBS type paths so they can block things.

I would hope even someone badging would have more idea of what's going on:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22712/127/

Kogan Agora delayed indefinitely

Ah, John you read Engadget slightly more often than I do, was just about to post that.

As for EmpegBBS being blocked, a while ago when I was on Orange UK and felt like browsing from my phone it was blocked and classed as 'Adult Content' and they wanted my Credit Card number for age verification. Bunch of muppets.

@wfaulk if you're not totally against chunky sliding phones, you may like the G1 instead. I like mine a lot. If you're not on T-Mobile, the 'developer' phone is completely unlocked for any network, and the T-Mobile G1 can be unlocked easily with a small charge in various places.

I've heard bad things about the usability of unlocked T-Mobile G1s. Hadn't looked at the developer edition yet, but I'm not really wanting to pay $424 for it.

I'll find out soon how it works. Mine will be unlocked and running on another network at the end of my contract in around 3 months time.

Unlocked G1's are fully functional...aside from a lack of 3G.

I should know, I have one on AT&T.

Not quite fully functional is it :P Dropping down to EDGE or GPRS is painful.

Some would argue that running on the ATT network isn't fully functional either.

Agreed.

Where'd you get it, and, if you don't mind saying, for how much? Anything I should watch out for?

Well, I mean, of course work is going on for the next phone. Given that they take quite a while to develop, you have to start on the next one well before you ship the one the world knows about.

And I'm not in PR, so Dan Lyons can't get all shouty with me

I got it at a T-Mobile store for $400. It's funny how hard it was to get them to allow me to hand them $400. But eventually, because a lower-level employee had already told me they would sell me the phone without a T-Mobile contract or account, the manager sold me the phone. I then used an online service to unlock it.

In the end, if I'd known about the developer phones, I would have gone that route. It ends up costing the same ($400 plus around $25-30 for unlocking or registering as a dev). Still, there wasn't really anything to worry about in getting the phone and unlocking it.

And to everyone else, clearly I realize that not having 3G means it's not fully functional, thus the ellipses. Sorry I did not follow the usual emoticon-based sarcasm conventions

But I must say, I rarely run across a case where lack of 3G is a hindrance. I've even been able to watch Youtube videos over EDGE. Web browsing, email, and even downloading apps all work fine, and more than half the time I'm near WiFi anyway.

Lack of 3G is a major issue for me because my carrier doesn't support EDGE in most areas. GPRS isn't fun!

Quite, EDGE is relatively rare in the UK, it only seems to appear a lot in very rural areas (where they won't be getting 3G for a long time).

I'm just confirming that lack of 3G is a side effect of AT&T, and not a side effect of unlocking and use on another network, right?

Eventually I want to use mine on O2 in the UK, I am hoping it will connect by 3G on that.

AT&T must have 3G, as it's the only provider for the 3G iPhone.

AT&T's 3G operates on 1900MHz and 850MHz. The G1 only supports 1700MHz (used by T-mobile in the US) and 2100MHz (used in non-US countries)

An iPhone 3G (at least the US version) only supports 3G on 850, 1900, and 2100MHz. Therefore, an unlocked iPhone 3G cannot use T-Mobile US 3G service.

Well, there you go.

The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.