OK not being that knowledgeable on cell phones - if you buy an "unlocked" phone can you remove the SIM card from your old phone and put it in the new unlocked phone ? Its a Rogers SIM card ........... I assume Rogers would have to "reprogram" something ?? Thanks for the help guys .........
with an unlocked phone, providing it is a GSM phone you will be able to put your Rogers SIM card into it and there should be no problems. Now depending on the phone some of it features (like video conferencing) may not work. And if it is an IPHONE I recommend getting a block for DATA usuage, or you will end up paying through the nose....
Yes make sure the unlocked phone you are buying meets the following requirements first:
-Uses GSM 850 AND 1900
if it only operates at gsm 1900, it will have spotty coverage here in Canada. We also dont use 900/1800 mhs here, so a phone with those bands will not do any exta for you, dont look at that as a selling point to buy a phone to use here unles you plan to travel frequent.
-Unbranded vs Carrier Branded
Yes your phone may be unlocked, but is it still branded to another carrier/country? if so you will have a hard time with getting certain features to work, calling up the carrier will get you no where since its your responsibility to make it work. IE: Cingular branded but unlockd phone using a Rogers sim, the internet will not work, the multimedia messaging will not work, and sometimes calling the voicemail or texting may not work unless you re-program the settings,
Generic phones have NO Customisation on them and usually have all the features incorporated into them as intended to. You still need to program them for internet and mms to work, but if you dont need those features, then dont worry.
So Rogers or Fido will NOT have to re-program anything for you, actually you can do the programming if you choose to, but its not mandatory. The sim card is already programmed to work, so just pop it in and start calling.
thanks guys ............ those are the answers I needed !