N75 Part V: Unbranding

The subsidized N75 comes branded by AT&T (or Cingular, depending upon your model). Evidently, there are some models where AT&T is capitalized and some where it is not. Mine is not and sports at&t on the cover. I do not know what the difference is, but the support people on the phone asked me each time I called to ask about the subsidy unlock code back in Part II and when I asked they said it denoted a difference in the phone. They wouldn't elaborate and to be honest I do not think they knew anything more than that it was a part of the script from which they read.

To prepare for this process, I made a full backup of the phone using the N-Series PCSuite software. On a tip from a comment, I also made a backup of only the contacts and calendar (latter not really necessary as I sync it with Google Calendar) because restoring everything to a, unbranded, upgraded phone can cause some problems.

I am not going to go into the process or instructions of unbranding, as Peter Leonard has already written a great how-to on his blog, and this is what I am using. I downloaded the Nemesis tool and during installation chose the Virtual USB device. The first time I tried to run Nemesis, it gave me an error and could not find my phone information. To fix this, I did the following:

1. Uninstalled the Nokia Nseries PC Suite
2. Uninstalled the Nokia PC Suite 6.85 I had running (probably should have done this before installing the Nseries suite anyway)
3. Uninstalled the Nokia Connectivity Cable Driver
   
4. Reboot
5. Downloaded the Nokia PC Suite 6.84
6. Installed PC Suite 6.84
7. Reboot (gotta love Windows)
8. Connect the phone in PCSuite mode
   
9. Re-ran Nemesis Suite
10. Clicked "Scan for new device"
11. Clicked the Phone Info button
12. Clicked the Scan button
13. Clicked the Read button under "Production Data Edit"
14. Clicked the Enable checkbox to the right of Product Code
    
15. Entered 0527376 into the Product Code field
16. Clicked Write
    

Nemesis Suite told me that it "Write new values...Done" and I was finished. I switched off my phone, turned it back on, and reconnected it to Nemesis one last time to ensure the changes had taken place.

The PCSuite perfectly launched the software updater and installed 20.1.172. I have no idea if I could have installed a middle version and if you do not want to, you probably do not need to go through the entire unbranding process. As soon as I unlocked the phone, the Nseries PCSuite asked me if I wanted to update the phone, and that was to the same update that I am currently running.

The update is interesting. It adds a tabbed view of the idle screen that I had never seen before. I do not think I will use this for very long, but it's interesting to play with and definitely gives the phone an updated feel. Those tabs appear to slow the phone down; moving between calls made and the text message archive takes a bit of time. I should be able to post more about the new firmware in the near future.