I had a colleague in the US using a Cingular 8700c. When he left our company, we paid the Cingular penalty for early termination and now the device is sitting on my desk in Canada. It occured to me that we could use it on Rogers here but nobody at either Cingular or Rogers seems to know how to accomplish this. Whenever I talk to Cingular, they tell me to take it to a Cingular office (or we cant help or we'll email the code but it never arrives) while the Rogers folks tell me that I have to get it unlocked first before I can use it. I brought it to a local (Toronto) store that offers unlocking services but they say they cannot unlock an 8700c. I'm going to try Cingular CS and tech support again today. Can anyone tell me exactly what lock codes are on this device and which ones do I need?

TIA

Jim

The unlock code is specific to each device. You'll have to either get it from Cingular or purchase one from a site like gsmphonesource.com. Check out the sponsors section for others.

After much delay and holding, a very helpful and patient CSR from Cingular gave me a 16 digit unlock code which now allows the 8700c to make voice calls using a Fido SIM so I guess I'm halfway there.

If it is making calls with a Fido SIM card, you should have no problem using a Rogers SIM card with an associated data plan and be up and running.

Thinking along those lines, I called Rogers and explained that I wanted to set up my voice and data plan. The CSR told me that I would have to go to a Rogers store or kiosk and buy a SIM there for $25 as she had no system for supplying a SIM without a phone or PDA.

Slow progress but progress nonetheless

Got a SIM from Rogers and activated a Blackberry Voice and Data plan. Voice and SMS is fine but email is not working. So I called Rogers and they tell me that my PIN is locked to the Cingular network and that I need to call them to have it released. It doesn't make sense to me that they would allow my device on their network if that is the case. Of course, Cingular/at&t dont want to know as I am no longer a customer of theirs.

Has anyone ever heard of PIN's being tied to particular networks?

The PIN and IMEI are most likely still tied to the cingular BIS account that the device was originally provisioned to. You'll have to get them to remove it.

OK I see a number of references to that being the case. So even though I asked the CSR to confirm that everything was completed, in fact, I needed to requested a PIN/IMEI release as well. Oh well!