Nokia N75 Part II: Unlocking
The first step in going further with my phone is to unlock it. You see, nearly all mobile phones you would get in the U.S. are subsidized by the network carrier (i.e. At&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile etc.). This is why you can go into a store and get a phone for free when signing a contract, or get a really good phone for $100 or less. In an effort to protect themselves, they lock the phone in such a way that the phone can only connect to their network and not others. Or, in other words, you can only use a SIM card that is associated with that carrier's network. You can undo this restriction by entering in a "subsidy unlock code". This is a unique number that is based on your phone's IMEI number. With some phones, you can simply get this number from a website, but for the N75, I had to go through AT&T.
I have heard from a few people and a number of websites that the way to do this is to call up the tech support as a non-new customer in good standing, and tell them you would like to use the phone during some international travels. Perhaps you want to use a pre-paid SIM while traveling in Germany to save some money on calling. Also, perhaps you want other people there to be able to call you without making an international call. These are pretty reasonable uses, and of course you will still be paying for your monthly contract.
Well, on my first day off in quite some time, a Sunday, I gave AT&T customer support a call to request this. The agent asked me a number of questions regarding the phone and how I would be using it while traveling abroad, even asking where I would be traveling. Well, I failed to provide a sufficiently out-of-the-way nation and his response was that because AT&T had international roaming agreements in all those countries, that would satisfy my needs. I reiterated the reasons I wanted to have the ability to use other SIM cards in my phone, but the agent would not open the ticket to get me an unlock code. He insisted I required International roaming and, as that department was closed for the day, said that they would give me a call on Monday to set it up. On the phone for nearly two hours and nothing to show for it.
Of course I never received a call. Four days later, I called back to start the process again. Using the same reasons, thirty minutes later the support agent had opened a ticket for me and said the unlock code would be e-mailed to me within a week. I received it the next day, followed the instructions and restarted the phone. Unlocked and can now use any network.
It never fails. No matter what the issue or question is with AT&T, I always get completely different results each time I speak with them.
Upon connecting the phone to the PC Suite, I received a notification that I could upgrade the firmware of the phone to 20.something. Now, the whole point of this is to eventually unbrand the phone, but I think the 20-something firmware will permanently brand it to AT&T. I have read that there will be no further releases from Nokia and you can only upgrade firmware, not downgrade it. So, I may end up at this version, but I want to try some interim versions first.
I have heard from a few people and a number of websites that the way to do this is to call up the tech support as a non-new customer in good standing, and tell them you would like to use the phone during some international travels. Perhaps you want to use a pre-paid SIM while traveling in Germany to save some money on calling. Also, perhaps you want other people there to be able to call you without making an international call. These are pretty reasonable uses, and of course you will still be paying for your monthly contract.
Well, on my first day off in quite some time, a Sunday, I gave AT&T customer support a call to request this. The agent asked me a number of questions regarding the phone and how I would be using it while traveling abroad, even asking where I would be traveling. Well, I failed to provide a sufficiently out-of-the-way nation and his response was that because AT&T had international roaming agreements in all those countries, that would satisfy my needs. I reiterated the reasons I wanted to have the ability to use other SIM cards in my phone, but the agent would not open the ticket to get me an unlock code. He insisted I required International roaming and, as that department was closed for the day, said that they would give me a call on Monday to set it up. On the phone for nearly two hours and nothing to show for it.
Of course I never received a call. Four days later, I called back to start the process again. Using the same reasons, thirty minutes later the support agent had opened a ticket for me and said the unlock code would be e-mailed to me within a week. I received it the next day, followed the instructions and restarted the phone. Unlocked and can now use any network.
It never fails. No matter what the issue or question is with AT&T, I always get completely different results each time I speak with them.
Upon connecting the phone to the PC Suite, I received a notification that I could upgrade the firmware of the phone to 20.something. Now, the whole point of this is to eventually unbrand the phone, but I think the 20-something firmware will permanently brand it to AT&T. I have read that there will be no further releases from Nokia and you can only upgrade firmware, not downgrade it. So, I may end up at this version, but I want to try some interim versions first.
posted by Kevin T. Neely at 9:03 AM
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